Visitors to the commercial capital may suddenly come across a blue coloured plastic sheet covering a portion of the imposing Portuguese-era Margao Municipal building, ostensibly to protect the 118-year old heritage structure from rain water seepage.
Margao civic chief Damu Shirodkar was quick to reassure that the measure adopted by the civic body is purely temporary in nature before the building is taken up for renovation after the monsoons.
Just a casual walk into the passages of the heritage building would show that all isn’t well inside the heritage structure. Leave alone water seepage into the various sections, the walls of the imposing structure have all turned damp and soggy, indicating rampant rain water seepage into the heritage building.
That a portion of a concrete plaster had come crashing down in the building passage a week ago gives an insight into the condition of the heritage building for want of upkeep and maintenance.
In fact, the prevailing condition of the Municipal building throws up a host of questions for the powers that be who have been controlling the affairs of the civic body over the years.
The last time the MMC structure had undergone a major revamp was
way back around two decades ago when the building was decked up coinciding with its centenary anniversary.
While the MMC chairperson claimed that the civic body has asked the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) to take up the work of renovation of the heritage building, sources in the know pointed out that either GSUDA or the Margao municipality should rope in experts to ascertain the stability of the structure and the walls, prone to rain water seepage over the years.
“Renovating the building with a fresh coat of paint or applying lipstick will not help conserve the heritage structure. Measures should be adopted to check the stability of the walls, more so after they have been exposed to rains over the years,” remarked the official in the know.
Dr Gomes ancestral house: Successive govts paid only lip service to restoration demand
MARGAO: The great Goan nationalist, Dr Francisco Luis Gomes is remembered every year on his birth anniversary on May 31 and again on September 30 coinciding with his death anniversary.A number of roads have been named after Dr Gomes, and memorials erected in as a mark of respect to the writer, economist, historian and MP in Portuguese Parliament. His ancestral house at Colmorod-Navelim, coming under the Margao Municipal jurisdiction, however, lies in a state of total neglect.While there’s been clamor for the restoration of the ancestral house of Dr Gomes over the years, successive governments have paid lip service to the demand, on the plea the house is now under private ownership.Sadly, a proposal mooted by former Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho over a decade ago to acquire the ancestral house of Dr Gomes along with the crumbling Municipal Camara de Salcete building located at Old Market, have remained only on paper for reasons best known to the Margao city fathers and the powers that be.
