VALPOI
Faced with the threat of a strike by municipal sweepers if they were not paid wages, the Valpoi Municipal Council (VMC) cleared their wages on Monday morning.Upset over the delay in receiving their wages, the VMC sweepers had threatened to agitate from Monday noon but the VMC prevented this situation by paying the sweepers their wages in the morning itself.
While the workers expressed their satisfaction over the payment of their salaries on Monday morning, VMC Chairperson Sehzain Sheikh said the VMC would have paid their wages.
“The wages were finalised on Friday, however, the chief officer was held up at a special meeting in Panaji on Saturday, which is why the workers could not be paid on Saturday itself. All provisions had been made to pay the salaries and the sweepers were not right in casting allegations against the VMC,” said Sheikh.
When contacted, Chief Officer Suryajirao Rane said there was no reason to be late in paying salaries to the workers and confirmed that he had been busy at a meeting in Panaji on Saturday.
Rane, however, expressed concern over the overall financial situation of the VMC.
“The revenue to the municipal council is not adequate. The VMC is a "C" grade council and would earlier get Rs 55 lakh in the form of octroi. But this year, the VMC has not been receiving octroi and as a result, there has been a burden on the council to generate revenue,” said the chief officer.
“This has adversely affected the timely disbursal of salaries of employees,” said Rane.
He informed that serious measures would be made to recover arrears.
“Tough decisions will be taken to recover dues and defaulters will be sent notices in the coming days,” he added.
Rane informed that the process of collecting garbage in Valpoi municipality is underway.
“The council charges only Rs 300 for each house, while other "C" grade municipalities in Goa have been charging Rs 700 per household. The VMC needs to increase this amount in the near future and if it is done, it can add to the revenue of the council and the problems that arise on account of financial crunch can be solved to a large extent,” he said.
