The Monserrate’s are seemingly passing through a purple patch. Both Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate is the MLA and his son Rohit is the mayor of Panaji, and both are facing the flak for the ongoing mess in their pocket borough.
Already, five incidents of vehicles suddenly going down with roads caving in have been reported in Panaji, unmistakingly the fallout of the indiscriminately excavated roads of the capital where work on the much-touted “Smart City” projects is being executed.
Monserrate senior has had a love-hate relationship with the “Smart City” project. He was a bitter critic of it for the first few years after it was sanctioned and the SPV -- Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) was formed leaving him and the CCP he controlled out of the equation then.
However, with the late Manohar Parrikar out of the equation and the mantle of the capital city falling into his lap, the fortunes reversed. He is now the protagonist-in-chief of ‘Smart City’. While the entire city, its residents and visitors spitting venom over the inconvinience caused by the haphazard manner of the execution of the work, Monserrate however no longer sees evil, hears evil or speaks any evil.
Who would when a whopping Rs 150-odd crores is being splurged and the ‘40 per-cent’ rumour is raging?
