While the roads within the jurisdiction of the Corporation of City of Panaji which includes Ribandar are yet once again being dug, the city Mayor and his entourage had a merry weeklong junket in Croatia. After facing the brunt of that digging of roads in the summer, we now have to bear the pain of another post monsoon nightmare which makes one wonder whether this now habitual excavation of our roads will ever stop.
It is an irony that the team led by Mayor Uday Madkaikar flew all the way to Croatia to exchange ideas on civic issues when Panaji itself has no dearth of extremely reputed planners and outstanding experts in the field. This junket may have been fully sponsored by the European Union, but somewhere down the line someone has coughed up for this needless trip which was a virtual holiday cum sightseeing expedition besides possibly a Christmas shopping bonanza. It being an official trip it ought to have been deliberated at the meeting of the CCP so that only persons with intellectual and academic acumen as well as relevant expertise could have been aboard.
Over the years Panaji has remained totally neglected while some of the Corporators have risen from rags to riches. The over two decade old Panaji Market multi crore scam still remains shelved while the kingpins of that scam are now at the helm of affairs at the CCP for whom only issuing construction licenses for huge concrete structures has been a priority while the city has been left absolutely neglected. And for the citizen it is more convenient to entrust the construction of their house to the local Corporator as a contractor and face no hassle and hurdles over the tedious and cumbersome licensing process. Such swiftly built bungalows in Ribandar are galore.
