PANAJI
The Opposition played on the front foot on Wednesday with the State government “Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate “ admitting in the Goa legislative assembly to glitches and issues of co-ordination between multiple agencies and departments in executing the smart city works over the last six months in Panaji.
Sawant however did not entertain the Opposition’s demand for setting up a House Committee to enquire into the wrongdoing.
“I agree some things have gone wrong. There were multiple agencies and departments executing the work and there were issues of co-ordination between them. We will rectify it,” Sawant said in response to the Opposition onslaught.
The issue was raised through a calling attention motion moved jointly by Goa Forward Party’s (GFP) Vijai Sardesai, AAP’s Venzy Viegas, Congress’ Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and RGP’s Viresh Borkar.
In a witty speech, Sardesai alleged that five of the six Portuguese-era drains of the capital city which drain storm water into the river had been blocked leading to flooding of the capital especially the heart of the city.
He also alleged rampant corruption in the fund-rich smart city vertical and a complete lack of accountability.
Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao said the whole smart city project was a mess.
“Crores of public money has gone down the drain. There has to be a house committee inquiry and action has to be taken against those responsible,” Alemao said.
Margao MLA, Digambar Kamat suggested that a single authority (officer) needs to have control over all executing agencies to ensure better co-ordination.
Pointing out that the smart city project was launched back in 2016, Kamat said it is shocking that nothing is in place even seven years later.
Earlier, in response to the motion, Monserrate, who holds the revenue portfolio and is also the Panaji MLA, admitted “nothing about Panaji is smart”.
He however sought to push the blame on erstwhile MD and CEO of IPSCDL, Swayandipta Pal Chaudhary, adding that with IAS officers now heading it things will be put in place.
Monserrate however said all the pending works will be completed in six months after the monsoon.
“Just wait for another six months time,” he added.
