MARGAO
Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai’s “Janata Darbar” promise at the Margao Municipal Council has failed to get the required manpower in the civic body, more so in the taxation section with the council laying stress on revenue recoveries.
Otherwise, consider this. The municipal accountant was transferred to the office of the Director of Municipal Administration, Panjim, last year on condition that the accountant will return back to the civic body after three months. After the last of three months, the DMA again wrote to the Margao municipality that the lady accountant will resume duties in the civic body in December last.
Till date, there’s no sign of the DMA relieving the accountant and sending her back to the Margao Municipal Council adding to the manpower constraints. All this while, the lady accountant, though deputed in the DMA’s office, has been drawing salaries from the Margao Municipal Council fund.
In the absence of the full-fledged accountant, the tax superintendent has been given the additional charge to look after the day-to-day affairs of the accounts. In the meantime, the Accounts and Tax Officer has been on sick leave for a month now, putting the taxation office in a big mess. Practically each and every table in the taxation section is piled up with dozens of files, leaving the applicants frustrated and with no option but to plead with the staff to process their applications.
The Shadow Council has slammed the manpower shortage in the taxation section at a time when the Chief Officer has undertaken an aggressive drive for recovery of arrears and the tax section is found complaining over lack of hands to handle the increase in work load.
“Due o the non-appointment of LDCs and UDCs, we have “worker’s” doing the job of LDCs, operating computers that too without any additional benefits,” Shadow Council convenor Savio Coutinho said, while demanding that the government and the authorities concerned devote some attention to the MMC and put things in order for the benefit of the taxpayers of Margao.
The TCP Minister had in the month of September assured at his Janata Darbar in the Margao municipality that issues pertaining to the manpower shortage plaguing the A-class municipality will be addressed on a priority basis, but in vain.
