the goan I network
VASCO
Opposition councillors of the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) have expressed outrage over the labour shortage and deputation of available labourers in the port town.
Opposition councillors have complained that over 20 labourers had been deliberately deputed at the garbage dumping site in Sada, while labourers have not been provided in wards for several months.
They claimed that the issue of labour shortage had been highlighted at many council meetings, but said their demands have fallen on deaf ears till date.
They also added that most wards were still waiting for cleaning and desilting of gutters and flooding had already begun taking place in some wards.
“In a recent incident, a resident of Ward 8 at Baina went to the chief officer’s cabin with garbage to prove that no garbage collection was done,” said Councillor Saifullah Khan.
“This is senseless. People are confronting us and we have been demanding labourers for many months. We just don’t get labourers, probably because we are in the opposition. They have kept labourers at the garbage treatment plant in Sada.”
“This is a Class A municipality and if they have kept 20 labourers at Sada, they should make arrangements to have extra labourers for other wards.”
“The chairperson should resign if he cannot take care of the municipality as one united body, where every ward will get labourers for normal works. He has to take care of all citizens in the jurisdiction and not only of his own ward,” Khan added.
Councillor Dhanpal Swamy said his ward was flooded in some areas as pre-mantenance work could not be completed die to shortage of labourers.
“We call the chief officer or the municipal engineer and inform him well in advance and they write in the book. But on the next day, labourers are not given to us. We are facing difficulties and today, parts of my ward was flooded and I had to spend my own money to clear some gutters. This is unfair and we are being cornered by people,” said Swamy.
