MARGAO
The cold war between Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar and Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar seemed to have intensified with the civic chief on Wednesday squarely blaming the Municipal Administration for the failure to mop up revenue to pay the staff salaries, besides wages to the daily wage workers.
Terming the failure to arrange the funds to pay the salaries and wages as an administrative lapse, the MMC Chairperson told the media that the day will not be too far when the Margao Municipal Council will go the Sanguem and Mormugao Municipal way over the delay in paying the staff salaries.
In fact, a visibly agitated MMC Chairperson said he will not accept any of the excuses given by the administration over the failure to mop up revenue to pay the salaries even if that results in a situation that he has to leave the chair.
“When I inquired about the salary payments of the Municipal employees on Tuesday, I was informed by the staff that the available funds are barely sufficient to pay the net salaries of the employees. My point is simple, why this situation has arisen in the civic body when we have an army of officials and workers”, he questioned.
He added: “I have been personally pursuing the revenue position in the civic body when this is the role of the administration. Is it not the responsibility of the officials to monitor the staff drafted for revenue recovery”.
Saying that the Margao Municipality is in need of Rs 1.80 crore to foot the salary bill of the Municipal employees, Damu questioned “is it the sole responsibility of the Municipal Chairperson to monitor the revenue recoveries when the administration is supposed to take care of these issues.
“The MMC has five Municipal inspectors, two sanitary inspectors, besides other officials, My question is why is the administration not drafting these officials to effect the revenue recoveries”, he said.
Further turning his tirade at the Municipal administration, the Civic chief cited instances wherein employees who work hard receive memos from the administration, while those who report for duty late get additional charge of office.
“I will discuss the administrative issues with our leader, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, besides our government so that a situation should not come in the future wherein the MMC cannot pay the salaries and wages of the employees and daily wagers for want of funds”, he said.
Sources in the know informed that the MMC Chairperson has fired the salvo at the Chief Officer a day after complaining to the Margao MLA Digambar Kamat that the administrative head does not take him into confidence. The MLA, however, was believed to have reassured Damu that he would talk to the Chief Officer and iron out differences, if any.
