MARGAO
Unlike many other municipal bodies, political instability was never an issue at the A-Class Margao Municipal Council.
Records would show that the Margao civic body may have the distinction of having being ruled by only two Chairpersons belonging to the Goa Forward, Babita Prabhudesai and Pooja Naik who shared power during the five-year term.
Five years down the line, however, the commercial capital’s burning issues of garbage, parking, stray dogs menace, etc are still awaiting solutions to date.
Take the case of the parking project. The foundation stone for the project was laid five years ago, but work is yet to commence till date.
Both Babita and Pooja claimed that factors such as GST, GSR rates and other technicalities had come in the way of the execution of the parking project, but one question that may come to haunt the two chairpersons was whether the five-year period was not adequate enough to complete the process and execute the work.
Garbage is another burning issue that still remains unresolved. Take note, the Goa Waste Management Corporation has taken up work of bio-remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump. The civic body may claim credit for streamlining door-to-door waste collection, but the question that remains unanswered is why the civic body could not cap the garbage issue during the last five years.
Both Babita and Pooja have claimed how a slew of measures was initiated during the last five years to resolve the garbage issue, including baling machine, proposal for bio-methanation plants et al. But, it’s also a fact that while the civic body has taken over the Sonsodo waste treatment plant from Fomento in February last, no new mechanism or plant has seen the light of day at Sonsodo in the last nine months to address the treatment of wet waste.
While the council had batted for the bio-methanation plants as an answer to the wet waste problem, by approving three such plants, only to later shelve the three plants, and go in for seven in its place, triggering row over the difference in the cost.
Strange it may seem, but true, that the over century-old heritage MMC building could not even get a fresh coat of paint during the last five years. Both Babita and Pooja may claim that they had prepared a grandiose plan to restore the building to its past glory with GSUDA funding, but questions may come to haunt the outgoing ruling body why the painting work could not be executed departmentally to spruce up the heritage building.
No doubt, the ruling body allocated more funds for the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme in the city in the last five years, but the ground reality remains unchanged to date.
