MARGAO
Over a year after Closed Circuit TV surveillance cameras made their presence felt at the Margao Municipal Council building, questions are being raised in the corridors of the Civic body whether the chambers of the Chairperson and the Chief Officer are no longer under the scanner of the Big Brother.The MMC was brought under the CCTV scanner after ex-chairperson Lyndon Pereira had got the project implemented in the civic body to mark the completion of one year in office in 2022. That’s not all. Lyndon had even gone to the extent of bringing his chamber and that of the Chief Officer under the CCTV scanner.
Sources, however, now say that the CCTV camera in the chamber of incumbent Chairperson Damu Shirodkar was turned around. It is learnt that the surveillance camera in the Chief Officer is now believed to have been removed after it was not found functioning for some time.
While Chairperson Shirodkar has declined to comment on whether the CCTV camera from the Chief Officer’s chamber has been removed or not, sources told The Goan that Chief Officer Gaurish Sankwalkar is believed to have maintained that the CCTV cameras are installed to act as a surveillance in the sections and not to bring an officer under the scanner.
He is also believed to have raised a question of whether the Council would have installed a surveillance camera in the chamber of the Chief Officer if the office was presided by a lady officer.
Even as the debate rages in the corridors of the civic body whether the office of the Chief Officer and the Chairperson ought to have come under the CCTV scanner, sources recalled an incident around a decade ago when a former Chief Officer had questioned the non-installation of surveillance cameras in the Chairperson’s chamber, even terming the MMC Chairperson’s chamber a den of corruption.
