While some action has been initiated to renovate the Administrator of Communidade building in South Goa, the edifice housing the North Goa Administrator of Communidade is also crying for attention as it’s facing a crisis of poor maintenance of ageing infrastructure.
The Portuguese-era building ‘Administracao das Communidades de Bardez’ has withstood the test of times but lack of upkeep has led to deterioration of the structure both inside and outside.
With chunks of cement peeling off, cracks on walls and a leaking roof, the precarious condition of the heritage building has raised fears of its collapse.
Several windows of the building are either broken or lie in a damaged state while the outside façade of the building is in a dilapidated state as chunks of cement are falling off due to lack of maintenance.
While several interior walls have developed cracks and the false ceiling falling off could pose a risk to the staff and the visitors that enter the building for inquiries.
All indications point out that the building has not received a coat of paint for years giving the whole structure a shabby look.
“The entire building is in a very bad state. I don’t understand why the government has not taken up renovation of the building. The government has acquired so much communidade land for peanuts to build various infrastructure projects in the State. The State government should renovate the building on its own cost,” said Rui Da Gama, President of Moira Communidade.
He said the building belongs to the comunidades of Bardez but suggested that the government should take up the repair and renovation of the heritage building.
Some years back, a heritage building housing the St Mary’s Convent High School across the road was restored by the government and handed over to the Mapusa Municipal Council.
“Since Administracao das Comunidades de Bardez is a heritage building, the government should take up its restoration work on priority,” he said.
Administrator of Comunidades (North) Shivprasad Naik informed that he has convened a meeting of the managing committees of the comunidades on February 5 to discuss various issues, one of which is the renovation and maintenance of the administration building.
MAPUSA: Apart from the dilapidated building, the office of the Administrator of Comunidades, North Zone is also grappling with the problem of staff crunch.
Acute shortage of staff hampers day to day administrative and accounting work in the office. Besides routine work, disposal of cases has also been severely impacted.
The Administrator of Comunidades handles almost 75 comunidades in the North Zone.
Sources informed that the office functions with just half a dozen of clerks. Besides handling individual comunidade matters, the staff has to also deal with cases of encroachments, RTI applications and at times even legal matters.
“On an average, we receive around 50 complaints regarding encroachments and other issues. Besides, the office is also dealing with matters pending before the High Court and lower and quasi-judicial courts,” the source informed.
Failure of regularisation of services has also affected the moral of the staff.
