CCP staffers clean garden of ex-IAS babu who got notice for illegal wall

Panaji: Just over a month after retired IAS officer Subhash Chandra received a demolition notice from the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) for building a wall without approval and blocking a neighbour’s passage, workers from the same CCP were deployed to spruce up his private garden in Ribandar.The civic body not only tasked three to four workers to remove weeds from the former bureaucrat’s backyard, it also provided a supervisor to oversee the clean-up.CCP mayor Rohit Monserrate, when contacted by TOI, said, “Let the commissioner do an inquiry and find out”.The issue came to light when locals confronted ward 30 corporator Sandra Da Cunha about the “VIP culture” and questioned why locals were not shown the same courtesy.

Da Cunha said that the CCP has never taken up private work “unless requested by residents when required” within the wards.Ribandar resident Nitin Nasnodkar said, “CCP people were cleaning the personal garden of a Delhi man, Chandra, who built an illegal compound wall blocking windows and an old passage, troubling one old lady in Fondvem. Instead of getting a demolition order for the compound wall, CCP is seen cleaning his personal compound”.

Chandra retired in Sept last year as secretary, Goa housing board, and was secretary of social welfare and art and culture. He bought a small house in Ribandar, where he has now settled.For locals preparing for Ganesh Chaturthi, CCP’s actions are akin to rubbing salt in their wounds. They have been urging the CCP to immediately clean the weeds along roadsides, small passages, and open areas in and around Ribandar. Locals say that cleaning work has been carried out only after the festival.“We sincerely hope that this year, the cleaning will be done before the festival, and also cleaning around immersion points. Unlike Panaji city, where maintenance and cleaning work is regularly undertaken, our area is often neglected,” said Nasnodkar.Locals said that for basic civic work in the neighbourhood, they have to plead for favours, but CCP can deploy a full team to clean the personal gardens of those with connections.