MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council seemed to have missed the bus as the civic body finds no mention in the reshuffle of bureaucrats effected by the government on Monday.
In fact, the MMC will have to contend with a part-time Chief Officer at the civic body and wait for another round of reshuffle of bureaucrats to get a full-fledged Chief Officer.
The government had last month shunted Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar and had given additional charge of the MMC to Social Welfare Director Ajit Panchwadkar.
The appointment of a part-time Chief Officer had hampered the overall municipal administration given that Panchwadkar holds a dual charge. Hearings of cases have been affected whenever the Chief Officer is preoccupied with his Social Welfare department duties.
When the situation was brought to the notice of Margao MLA Digambar Kamat recently by the media, he pointed out that Panchwaakar’s appointment was a stop-gap arrangement done by the government. The Margao MLA had told the media that the Margao Municipal Council will get a full-fledged Chief Officer during the general reshuffle of bureaucrats.
While Panchwadkar cleared around 200 pending files in a single day after taking the reins of office, sources said it is necessary to have the services of a full-fledged Chief Officer, especially in a civic body such as Margao municipality not just to clear the files, but to ensure close monitoring and supervision of the administration.
