MARGAO
The Shadow Council for Margao has charged Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankwalkar is arbitrarily charging house tax and sanitation fees on the illegal structures at Moti Dongor in order to please his political master.
SCM convenor Savio Coutinho pointed out that while the Chief Officer is charging the house tax and sanitation fees for only one year, the circular very clearly specified that the taxes from February 2018 should be recovered from the illegal structures.
Coutinho has warned that the Chief Officer shall have to bear all the losses caused to the Municipal treasury. “The Chief Officer is learnt to have given instructions that the 192 houses from Monti Dongor should be charged only one year’s tax and sanitation fees,” Coutinho said.
He strongly demanded for action against the Chief Officer for indulging into creating loss of revenue to the Council just to please his political master from Margao. “It is common knowledge that crores of rupees are distributed during elections to purchase votes, some of this amount could be easily paid to the Council in the form of tax dues which are sought to be waived,” he said.
Coutinho further charged that hundreds of files which are supposed to be in the Council building are illegally taken away in bags allegedly by the staff of the Margao MLA. “If files can be moved from table to table, and carried away home, then we urge the government and the Urban Development Ministry to make this practice legal. Let all the applicants carry their applications and file’s along with them, till the process is completed, Coutinho said while displaying video footage of files brought in bags.
“While the entry records show 192 files being submitted, only hundred files are now in the Council building. The Chief Officer should explain where the remaining files disappeared, and how files are allowed to be taken outside by someone who is not even the applicant,” he added.
Addressing the media with Adv Snehal Onskar, Arch Carlos Gracias, Lalan Parsekar, Maria do Carmo, Camilo Camara, Sujata Parsekar and others, Coutinho questioned the rationale behind the assessment of houses only from one area, and demanded that all houses from the entire Municipal area should be undertaken for assessment as per the government circular dated 16th July 2022.
