'UNSAFE' BUILDING STANDING TALL
File photo of the 'unsafe’ building.
MARGAO
Has the Margao Municipal Council revoked the trade license issued for a footwear showroom in the “unsafe” building till date, leave alone razing down the building as per the directions of the South Goa district Collector?
Well, strange it may seem, but true that not only the unsafe building is standing tall, but the trade license issued to the footwear showroom has not been revoked till date. What’s interesting to note is that the district Collector, South Asvin Chandru, IAS, who is also the Chairperson of the South Goa Disaster Management Authority, had issued the directions to the Margao Municipal Council on November 13 last to avoid any untoward incidents, but the Municipality is yet to take the ongoing process to the logical conclusion till date.
Inquiries by The Goan has revealed that it was only after the media had highlighted the order of demolition issued by the district Collector, the Margao Municipal technical section had forwarded the file to the Municipal taxation section to revoke the trade license issued to the unsafe building.
Against this backdrop, the taxation section then drafted the market inspectors to inspect the unsafe building to find out whether any other business activity is taking place in the building other than the footwear showroom.
When The Goan sought to find out from the taxation section whether the trade license issued to the footwear showroom has been revoked in view of the Collector’s directives to demolish the building, a taxation official said the file has been put up to the Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar to sign the order revoking the license.
Incidentally, when The Goan called up by the Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar to shed light on the file put up by the Municipal taxation section for the revocation of the trade license for the footwear showroom, the Chief Officer said the civic body cannot simply revoke the trade license without first issuing a show cause notice.
“The MMC will first issue a notice to the footwear showroom to show cause why the trade license should be not revoked in view of the district Collector’s directions for the demolition of the unsafe building”, he said, adding that the civic body would then take the next step of revocation of the trade license.
Questions are being raised when exactly the process of revocation of the trade license and the demolition of the unsafe building will finally take place. This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that a structural stability test conducted way back in 2018 has confirmed that the building in question is unsafe.
However, neither the Civic body had ever bothered to shut down the business activity in the building in the last five years, but issued the trade license for the footwear showroom last month, indicating the structural stability report was confined to the Municipal dusty books for reasons best known to the City Fathers and the Municipal babus.
