VASCO
The Mormugao Municipal Council meeting to discuss and tackle various issues witnessed several noisy moments, allegations and chaos on Monday morning, prompting a group of councillors to demand the resignation of MMC Chairperson Bhavna Nanoskar.
Heated arguments prevailed when councillor Kritesh Gaonkar alleged that some club owners and gambling agents had met the husband of the MMC chairperson, pleading not to take action against them.
Nanoskar shot back and threatened to expose Gaonkar in public and to file a defamation case against him for the baseless allegations.
The divide between two groups of councillors was also evident as topics were constantly being deferred over the need to seek legal opinions.
While discussing an issue of a cattle pound, further chaos ensued when councillor Lavina D’Souza told Nanoskar to stand up so that the other aggrieved councillors could sit down.
Nanoskar said D’Souza should know how to respect a chairperson. Matters came to a boil when D’Souza demanded an apology from Nanoskar and said no more points would be taken up till an apology was tendered.
Adding to the drama was the presence of the entire group of fisherwomen from Vasco fish market at the MMC building.
The topic of trade license was taken up and some councillors alleged that many trade licenses were being misused for different purposes like gambling and selling of fish, with Nanoskar doing nothing in the matter. Nanoskar responded that she would do a thorough check before taking action.
The groups sparred yet again on the topic of transfer of leases, when one matter regarding transfer of lease of a MMC shop was taken up for discussion.
While some councillors demanded the transfer of lease be taken up for discussion, the other group of councillors said since the matter was sub-judice and that a legal opinion in all aspects not taken, they demanded that another legal opinion be taken before transferring the lease so that MMC would not face any complications in future.
Later speaking to reporters, councillor Kritesh Gaonkar said there were a number of illegal clubs and some women had complained to the council that their husbands had lost a lot of money gambling in such clubs.
Gaonkar also demanded the resignation of the chairperson on moral grounds.
“These clubs must stop. The police is not doing anything. The MMC has a right to close them and no one is doing anything about this,” said Gaonkar.
“The chairperson is not taking anyone into confidence and no works are happening. Despite a court order, a slaughtering licence has been issued. We can see a lot of illegalities here. We had also requested the assessment of legal houses but that is also not happening. I feel
that the chairperson should resign on moral grounds,” said Gaonkar.
