MARGAO
A “dismayed” Margao Municipal Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai has dashed off a note to the Chief Officer Johnson Fernadnes seeking to know why the municipal officials dilly dally in walking the talk when it comes to clearing the Aquem side of the Margao railway station of the illegal gaddas and other illegalities.
Babita has ostensibly put up the note to the Chief Officer after her instructions to the municipal administration to clear the illegalities have gone abegging till date. That’s not all. The Chairperson has made it amply clear that she has found the sanitation officers as well as the market inspectors dragging their feet in initiating action against the illegalities, especially the illegal gaddas doing business along the Konkan Railway wall outside the railway station.
“I was forced to put up the note to the Chief Officer to find out whether there’s any pressure on the municipal authorities against initiating action. This is one question to which I have no answer and hence I had asked the Chief Officer to submit to me a status report,” Babita added.
It’s now a month since the MMC Chairperson had come out openly against the illegalities along the Konkan Railway retaining wall outside the Aquem side of the Margao railway station after she personally saw for herself the rampant illegalities.
Though the MMC Sanitary Inspectors Viraj Arabekar and Sanjay Sanguelkar had descended outside the railway station a couple of days ago after the Chief Officer authorized them to crack a whip against the illegalities in the city 24x7, the ground reality has remained unchanged till date.
What’s interesting to note is that Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes has till date not replied to the Chairperson’s note, but sources in the known said the Chief officer has for the moment applied the brakes on any action against the illegalities outside the railway station for the reason that a meeting of various agencies had in the past agreed not to touch the illegalities till the PWD comes out with a rehabilitation package for the gaddas on the land acquired near the fire station.
Sources said the minutes of the meeting of various agencies have been submitted to the Chief Officer for information, with officials saying that the municipal administration is virtually going slow against the illegalities after taking cognizance of the minutes of the meeting of various government agencies.
