PANAJI
The Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) on Monday submitted before the Bombay High Court at Goa that on a yearly basis they spend Rs 16 crore towards the payment of salaries of staff and administrative expenses and the expenses towards desilting of wells, repairs to roads, drains, culvert, stairs footpath is only Rs 4.37 lakh and that other expenses like contingencies of cleanliness from door to door collections etc is Rs 4.59 lakh.
The records were placed before the Bombay High Court at Goa which is hearing a plea seeking directions to the Council to construct footpaths along major arterial roads in the city like the one from the Court junction to the Asilo District Hospital stretch.
“It appears that the major portion of the Mapusa Municipal Council finances are utilised for salaries and administrative expenses leaving only a miniscule amount for the works for which the municipality was constituted, i.e. providing amenities to its residents. Today the municipality says that it has no finances to provide footpaths along its roads,” the High Court bench of Justices MS Sonak and Valmiki Menezes, said.
“The issue of footpaths cannot be seen in isolation. The roads are not meant only for plying of vehicles. Even the residents/ people have a right to use the roads. In the absence of footpaths such use is rendered extremely unsafe and the civic authorities cannot simply abdicate their funds on the specious plea that they have no money to provide footpaths or to otherwise take some reasonable measures to ensure the safety of the people, who are mostly for economic reasons, forced to walk on these public roads,” the High Court also observed, directing the Chief Officer to file a detailed affidavit about the finances and working of the Mapusa Municipal Council.
