MARGAO
The over century-old Margao Municipal building is craving for attention, not just for a fresh coat of paint, but is facing acute space constraint to store official files.
Friday also saw a small portion of the false ceiling in the councillors’ room coming down, only throwing up questions over the delay in taking up the repairs and renovation of the heritage building.
Otherwise, consider this. The entire corridor on the southern side of the Municipal building is literally converted into a makeshift storage for files, with cupboards lining all along the place. In fact, a visit to the corridor behind the councillors’ room would reveal the worst scenario, with official files from the cupboards spilling over to the entire place.
The situation at the administrative section is no better. For want of space, official files, pertaining to correction of names, are all stored on the desks, virtually burying the employees working in the section. If officials are to be believed, the administrative section has also been facing staff constraint to make entry in the birth registers vis-Ã -vis changes effected in the names.
Margao Municipal councillor Camilo Barretto slammed the powers that be for ignoring the maintenance of the Municipal building and for not making adequate provision to store the official files.
“Today, a small portion of the false ceiling of the roof in the councillors’ room came down. Fortunately, the incident happened last night. Just imagine a situation if the ceiling had to come down when the councillors were seating in the room,” Camilo pointed out.
He added: “Municipal Chairperson Lyndon Pereira would be completing one year in office, but the heritage building is not getting the coat of paint till date. We are going around the wards for a clean-up operation. I want to say our very own building needs a clean up operation.”
Camilo pointed out that the Municipal building is not only craving for a coat of paint, but is in need for major repairs. During the last monsoons, there was seepage of water in the taxation section. The windows are all broken,” he added.
Director of Municipal Administration, Gurudas Pilarnekar said the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) is in the process of floating a tender to renovate the Margao Municipal building. “GSUDA had taken a decision to take up the MMC building renovation in Phase-II. In the first phase, we have taken up the historic Lohia Maidan beautification project,” Pilarnekar said.
