Vijai gave me offer to buy
returned car, says Falari
MAPUSA
Giving a new twist to the saga of the Margao chairperson’s new car, Mapusa Municipal Council Chairperson Sandeep Falari on Friday said the Fatorda MLA had given him an offer to buy the car which he had flatly refused.
“Vijay phoned me and asked me to take over the Margao Municipal Council car, as the chairperson had decided to return the car,” Falari told The Goan.
Falari was responding to the uncharitable remarks the Fatorda MLA had made against him while launching the Goa Forward’s 'Mission Bardez' in Mapusa recently.
Speaking further, he said the Fatorda MLA tried to smooth talk his way urging him to take over the car but he refused to come under his influence.
“When I told him that Mapusa Municipal Council has sent a request for a new car for government’s approval, he (Vijay) said since your government is in power it won’t be a problem,” Falari told The Goan. “I then said to him that we don’t operate that way,” he added.
At the Goa Forward’s Mapusa meeting recently, Fatorda MLA Vijay Sardesai had said that the Mapusa Municipal Council was not an A-Class municipal council but yet was seeking approval to buy a high-end car.
“Our municipal council is A-Class but yet when there was an issue on the chairperson’s new car we asked our chairperson, Babita to return the car,” Sardesai said.
He further said that Mapusa chairperson had no right to buy a high-end car because Mapusa was a B Class municipal council but yet Falari was justifying why he needed a new car.
“These people have the habit of having fun on government/people’s cost. That is why they want new vehicles,” Sardessai had said.
Falari accepted that the Mapusa Municipal Council had sought approval from the government to buy a new vehicle for the chairperson costing about Rs 16.50 lakh.
Trying to explain the process to buy the car, he said: “A chairperson is entitled to buy a car worth Rs 11.50 lakh from municipal funds without any government approval. But when the cost overshoots the prescribed amount, the municipal council has to take government’s approval.”
The Mapusa chairperson then disclosed that Vijay and he were colleagues when they were in Congress party.
