MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council is back again in the cynosure of all eyes.
Even as City Fathers and political observers were anxiously waiting for the Director of Municipal Administration to announce the election schedule to fill up the vacant post of Municipal Chairperson, the contentious issue of kabrastan has come back to haunt the civic body and the Powers that be.
With the kabrastan issue scheduled to come up for hearing in the High Court later this month, a group of councillors, cutting across party lines, are expected to move the acting chairperson in a day or two to convene a special council meeting for a discussion on the kabrastan.
The group of councillors is believed to have obtained the signatures of City Fathers, aligned with the BJP and Goa Forward camp and is expected to officially request a special meeting on the burning issue.
The kabrastan issue has come to the fore after the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGDPA) Member Secretary Vinod Kumar filed an affidavit in the High Court hearing a Public Interest Litigation stating that burial grounds can come up in a settlement area as per the Goa Land Development rules.
Councillors opposed to the kabrastan coming up at Sonsodo feel that the SGPDA’s affidavit has paved the way for the government to set up the burial grounds at the land acquired at Sonsodo by the MMC over a decade ago in 2011 when the State was ruled by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat.
Sources said the special meeting is being requested by the councillors not only to deliberate on the vexed issue, but to reiterate the decision of the Council opposing the kabrastan at the Sonsodo land.
How the issue of kabrastan will have a bearing on the outcome of the election for the vacant post of MMC chairperson remains unclear for the moment. However, both the Goa Forward and the BJP camps seemed anxiously waiting for the DMA Gurudas Pilarnekar to announce the election schedule to fill up the vacant post at the earliest.
The post had fallen vacant after the 15 BJP-backed councillors had voted Goa Forward-backed Independent councillor Ganashyam Shirodkar out of office in a no-trust motion after a week of his election to the coveted post.
Both the BJP camp headed by Congress-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat and the Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai seemed to keep their cards close to their chest on the question of their respective candidates for the post of chairperson.
