MAPUSA
With uncooperative government departments coupled with a host of in-house problems, the Mapusa civic body is racing against time to complete pre-monsoon works in town.
The Mapusa Municipal Council has failed to complete its pre-monsoon works on time even as monsoon is at the doorstep.
Councillors and locals have complained that cleaning of nullahs and drains has not been completed.
Several main and internal roads have witnessed potholes of various sizes and if not attended to before the rains, it could cause inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians alike.
Normally, pre-monsoon work starts in March-April and is completed by May end. This year, the civic body was found wanting to complete the work despite claims of kick-starting the work way back in March.
At several places, mud extracted from the drains and stacked by the side of the road for more than a month now bears testimony to the shoddy work by the civic body.
“The pre-monsoon work has been poor, to say the least. In my ward, the municipal workers have cleaned the drains and left the muck on the roadside for more than a month now. With the first rains, some of the muck has re-entered the drains,” Shashank Narvekar, councillor of ward 5.
Prakash Bhivshet, councillor of ward 20 informed that he has repaired part of a road in his ward through his personal funds as the municipality has failed to take up road repairs before the monsoon.
However, councillor, Komal D’Souza said that all pre-monsoon works in her ward have been completed.
“I have been proactive from day one. I have been constantly following up with the chairperson and the civic officials to get my work done. All works of cleaning of drains and patching up of roads have been done. Hot-mixing of roads in my ward has also been sanctioned but will be taken up after monsoon,” said D’Souza, who is an opposition backed councillor.
Mapusa civic officials claim that 90 per cent of the pre-monsoon works have been completed. However, the ground situation contradicts this claim.
Two months back, the local MLA along with the civic authorities had jointly organised meetings with different departments to facilitate the pre-monsoon works.
PWD, WRD fail to honour commitment: Chairperson
MAPUSA
The Chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council, Shubhangi Vaigankar gave a clean chit to civic workers but hit out at the government departments for failing to do their duty in carrying out pre-monsoon works.
Vaigankar also said that MMC will do its best to complete all the monsoon-related works before the rains sets in.
“The PWD (roads) officials have put their hands up refusing to take up cleaning of drains along the major district roads (MDR) while the WRD is only making promises to take up the clearing of the major nullahs crisscrossing the town,” Vaigankar said.
She said the WRD was so uncooperative that she had to beg the officials to take up the work on priority due to the approaching monsoon.
“I have been constantly reminding the officials to take up the pre-monsoon works but the concerned officials who promise to do the work just fail to turn up,” she said.
She further informed that the department has now appointed a new contractor to complete the works in monsoon as the old contractor was playing truant.
According to the chairperson, the civic body had kick-started pre-monsoon works in March and has cleared the drains in the municipal market and most of the gutters in the wards.
“Initially, we did face problems to lift the residue collected from the drains due to shortage of vehicles. However, we have managed to tide over the vehicle crisis and cleared most of the muck that was stacked by the roadside,” she said.
