MARGAO
A special meeting called by the Margao Municipal Council to plan pre-monsoon works in the commercial capital brought out a moot question “ why should the civic body engage contractors to carry out de-silting works when the municipality has an army of workers on the rolls?
Even as MMC Chairperson Lyndon Pereira pointed out that the pre-monsoon desilting works would cost the civic body around Rs 21 lakh, city fathers comprising Damu Shirodkar, Shagun Naik, Sadanand Naik and others wondered why the municipality should hire workers when the MMC has a huge workforce.
In fact, the city fathers got the Chairperson to get the municipal site supervisor at the meeting hall to answer queries on the manpower situation as they claimed that some of the workers refuse to work on the ground.
Councillors demanded to know how come the workers, who are engaged for fieldwork, are working in the main office, saying that these workers should be on the ground.
The site supervisor explained to the Chairperson that the council has around 47 workers, including 37 daily wage workers and nine permanent. The supervisor, however, pointed out that around 11 workers are presently on leave, affecting the fieldwork.
Councillors demanded that workers who are not willing to work should be told to take VRS and facilitate the civic body to engage new workers.
Chairperson Lyndon Pereira explained to the agitated councillors that the civic body has drawn up a plan to engage 75 workers in each of the 25 wards on a rotation basis. The councillors, however, told the Chair that the pre-monsoon exercise ought to have been done much earlier and not on the eve of the monsoons.
