MARGAO
Stray dogs loitering at the entrance to the Margao Municipal building or the in the corridors of the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex in the South Goa district Collector is not something new.
But, hold on. Stray dogs have now made their presence felt in the courts, creating havoc inside the Court buildings, triggering a scare for the advocates, litigants and the Court staff.
In fact, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Margao Judge Carlo Santana Da Silva has dashed off a letter to the Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council and the NGO engaged by the civic body to help keep the strays inside the court building at bay.
In his letter, Judge Carlo drew attention of the Margao Civic Chief that a stray dog is roaming inside the Margao Civil and Criminal Court premises. He pointed out that the dog has been creating havoc due to which advocates and litigants attending the Court and even the staff members get scared of the situation.
While saying this may create a serious threat to the safety, the Judge requested the MMC to depute the personnel to catch the stray dog and get rid of the situation.
Dogs straying into the Margao Civil and Criminal Court building is a grim reminder to the Margao city fathers and the Municipal babus that all is not well on stray dog front in the commercial capital.
In fact, Margao Municipal Council’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme has been in the news in recent times with the civic body dragging its feet even to ink a fresh agreement with NGOs to run the ABC programme in the city.
For three long years, the MMC had been found wanting in inking an agreement with NGOs working in the field of stray dogs. And, when the MMC finally decided to sign an agreement with an NGO, outgoing Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar had inked the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NGO sans floating an Expression of Interest (EoI).
Though the outgoing Chief Officer now stands transferred, questions are still raised in the corridors of the Margao Municipal building whether the MoU signed by Sankhwalkar has legal sanctity when it has been signed without complying with the mandatory codal formalities since the MMC will be making a monthly payment of Rs 60,000 to the NGO to run the ABC programme.
