PANAJI
Even as Revenue Minister, Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate has consistently played down the mess caused by the ongoing smart city works in the capital city, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) controlled by him and headed by his mayor-son Rohit, has found convenient 'scapegoats' for the widespread chaos in the city: CCP supervisors.On Friday several site supervisors, senior supervisors and supervisors of the Corporation were issued show-cause notices by the Commissioner accusing them of failing to keep Panaji roads clean.
The action of the CCP Commissioner comes in the wake of site inspections conducted by a team of high-level government officers who conducted a recce in light of an upcoming G20 summit in the capital city.
Accusing the supervisors of lethargy and lack of interest in work, the notices have cited that various drains are heaped with plastic and glass bottles, dry leaves and other waste.
Road cleaning, drain repair/clean-ups, tree pruning, weed cutting are some of the tasks the notices say are not being carried out regularly.
Meanwhile, former mayor and senior CCP councillor Surendra Furtado, has expressed to the Commissioner his surprise over the reprimand to supervisors and senior supervisors in the face of "unsafe" and "haphazard" Smart City works.
"First of all the mayor and his advisors should be held responsible for the mess in the city and for shifting duties of supervisors from one ward to the other," Furtado said, adding that the show-cause notices should instead be issued to the Smart City contractors who have dug the entire city and turned it into a war zone.
He accused the mayor of trying to protect the Smart City officials and contractors and alleged that neither the mayor nor the MLA or Commissioner have taken any of the councillors into confidence with regard to the Smart City works.
