-- Samir Umarye BICHOLIM OCT 23: Even as the Bicholim Muncipal Council claims of development and stability in Bicholim the people seem to be unsatisfied with their claims.
It may be stated that the main poll propoganda of some of the councillors including the chairman, Satish Gaonkar is the development work and stability given by them. Some of the important projects of the BMC include the Garbage treatment plant, construction of gutters, sanctioning of centre's fund for constrution of the new market, construction of new BMC building, roads and beautification of the city. The BMC could be well considered as one of the stable in the state as it saw only one chairman for almost a decade. Satish Gaonkar got elected from the same ward number -8 and was supported by everyone for the chairman's post. During the last tenure efforts were made by the then transport minister, Pandurang Raut to destabilise the council but if had failed miserably. Satish Gaonkar was still able to retain the chairman's post. During the last tenure he also introduced his wife and with the help of some of the BJP councillors including the Bicholim MLA, Rajesh Patnekar was able to retain the power in the council. Inspite of all these facts the people from Bicholim seem not too happy with the working of the council. "Stability does not always mean development and even after 10 years of stability there has been no perfect development taken place in the city" Ramesh Gawas a resident and an environmentalist claims adding "we could call it self development rather than the development of the city." Gawas who is also an anti-mining activist is not happy with the way the mining issues that were handled by the council. "Bicholim is slowly moving into the hands of mining lobby and the council failed to do anything in this regard" he said "they have entered Lamgao and it is right upto Gaonkarwada but the council failed to keep check on them." He also charged the council for the faulty Regional plan and claimed that it is just an eye wash. "The plan demands 15mts road and if this is materialised many houses will have to be razed and the politicians will never go against their voters" he stated. Vikas Parab another resident from the city had the same opinion. "There is no parking place in the city and on what basis do they claim that they have done a progress" Vikas questioned. It may be stated that since last ten years the problem of parking has been very serious. It is felt mostly during the market day and most of them park their vehicles along the main road at the enterence of the market. This further leads to problem for the buses and the other vehicles plying on the road. The BMC does not have any parking place in the city. It may be recalled that during one of the meetings there was a proposal of making the place available under the RTO's office as a parking place but it did not materialise after opposition from the council. It is surprising to note that the BMC even failed to repair the entire stratch of gutters infront of the RTO's office from last several years. Many newspapers highlighted this but all turned nelson's eye over the issue and so it is still laying unattained and stinking. Similar was the case with the market area. "There were several projects by the BMC which were unique including the garbage treatment plant but we feel that they neglected the market for almost a decade. There are several problems and the council did not pay attention to them." Nitin Kumbharjuvekar a businessman from the Bicholim market told. Even as the council seem to boast about it's garbage plant there are some who feel that this problem is not solved in the city. "The garbage plant has not at all solved the garbage problem in the city and one can see heaps of garbage remaining unattained." Arjun Parab told.
