MARGAO
Newly-appointed Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar has a task cut out as he assumed office of the A Class civic body on Thursday, with the civic body plagued by a host of issues, right from garbage handling and disposal to outstanding revenue recoveries and issues such as the derailed Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme et al.
Given that the garbage and Sonsodo imbroglio has come under the High Court scanner and the civic body running behind schedule in implementing the Action Plan submitted by the MMC to the Court, the Chief Officer may have been left with hardly any options than to get things moving on the garbage front.
The outstanding revenue recoveries, sources said, is still a cause of concern, though incumbent Chairperson Damu Shirodkar had gone about toning the revenue recovery mechanism after assuming office in October last.
The Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme is practically non-existent in the civic body. With the stray dog issue again under the High Court scanner, sources said it’s now left to be seen how the new Chief Officer will go about implementing the ABC programme in Margao. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the civic body and a city-based NGO on the ABC programme has expired on December 31, 2020 and the same is neither renewed nor has the civic body roped in a new NGO to implement the same.
The new Chief Officer will have to also outline plans how to go about bringing the thousands of illegal houses across the commercial capital under the tax net. Besides, thousands of commercial establishments are believed to be running business in the commercial capital sans the mandatory trade licences, a cause behind the huge revenue leakage.
After taking charge of the civic body on Thursday, the Chief Officer seemed to have set out an agenda to accord priority to garbage handling and disposal and to mop up revenue, including outstanding recoveries.
The fourth Chief Officer to take charge of the MMC in the last one year, Gaurish told The Goan that the host of issues seemed plaguing the civic body and it would be his endeavour to address them one by one. “The garbage issue is under the High Court scanner. Margao seemed facing the issue of garbage disposal. The city generates around 35 tons of wet waste and disposal is a big issue. We will try to address the issue keeping in mind the High Court directions,” he added.
Saying he has taken note of the outstanding revenue recoveries in the civic body, the Chief Officer said all these issues will be resolved with the cooperation of all concerned. “I have taken charge of the civic body today. All issues facing the civic body will be addressed with the cooperation of everyone. We will try to dispose of the issues one by one,” he added.
