Powers of the CCP being diluted Elvidio Miranda
The GPCC President, Girish Chodankar has hit the nail on the head. The GSIDC (Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation) and the IPSCDL (Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited) have usurped the powers of the CCP (Corporation of the City of Panaji) and formed a parallel, higher level authority with no accountability and autocratic in nature. The CCP has been relegated to becoming the housekeeper of Panaji, when since the CCP is an elected body, it being the representatives of the people of Panaji should be in-charge of running the affairs of the city. Further, the CCP gets a measly sum of Rs. 30 crore only while the GSIDC and the IPSCDL a whopping sum of Rs. 2000 crore. It is high time that the GSIDC and the IPSCDL should be run by elected representatives. The main beneficiary of these two bodies the GSIDC and the IPSCDL is obviously the BJP, and ex-Panaji MLA, Siddhart Kuncolienkar should not have been appointed as the chairman and vice-chairman of the GSIDC and the IPSCDL, since definitely the needle of suspicion of corruption can be pointed out to the concentration of power under him while controlling the purse strings. The city is in the grip of several problems such as bad roads, ineffective drainage system, traffic jams, parking problems which were supposed to be controlled by the CCP. Mention has also to be made that the elections to the Goa Urban Co-operative Bank Limited have been shrouded in a cloud. If those supposed to maintain the rules and live according to the law, themselves break it, then the common man will follow suit. Let there be transparency in the functioning of bodies especially involved in big projects worth thousand crores. Sent from my Samsung device