OLD GOA
St Cruz MLA Tony Fernandes on Friday claimed that some government officials had been incompetent and MLAs have had to work as peons to tell them how to go ahead.
He was speaking after launching work to repair a dilapidated road at St Agostinho in Santa Cruz in the presence of Sarpanch Namdev Naik and others.
“In WRD, some officials do not know about processing the files. And sometimes we, MLAs, have to tell them how to go ahead. We have to work as peons which should not be the case,” he added.
The road, which will be repaired by the PWD at a cost of over Rs 90 lakh, was in the limelight recently with Santa Cruz locals protesting over the inordinate delay in repairing the road, which was causing hardship to motorists and pedestrians.
Fernandes said he had been following up with the issue since 2019 but because of financial crunch, the work got held up.
“I even had to bring it to the notice of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant,” Fernandes said and added that all roads in Santa Cruz will be taken up by the second week of February.
“I have got development works worth Rs 22 crore in my constituency, which include the police outpost at Santa Cruz which is nearing completion. The land acquisition process for a garbage treatment plant in Santa Cruz is almost complete as well as the process for a community hall,” he added.
He also said works on the football grounds in Santa Cruz and Merces would also be taken up.
A local, Andrea Fernandes, said she used to regularly follow up with the local panch as well as the local MLA, but work on the road was not taken up.
“It was people’s power which helped today. However, I thank the MLA for keeping his promise of taking up the road work well ahead of the February 5 deadline. Also thank the PWD minister, PWD officials and others for their cooperation in the matter,” Fernandes said, while stating that her NGO would continue to highlight people’s issues.
