Shift government offices to facilitate parking: Civic body

PANAJI: The corporation of the city of Panaji (CCP) on Wednesday called upon the state government to shift all government offices outside the city preferably to Patto or Porvorim and also decided to seek the intervention of the Union defense minister A K Antony for handing over two military garages - both to tackle the parking problem in Panaji.
After the monthly council meeting on Wednesday, mayor Surendra Furtado said, "I will be writing to the minister of defense, requesting him to handover the two military garages belonging to the CCP.I am sure being a Congressman, he will help us out. The place then can be used to facilitate multiple level parking for the citizens."
The CCP also passed a resolution to tackle the parking problem in the city. Furtado said, "We have unanimously passed a resolution to request the state government to shift all the government offices outside the city, preferably, Patto Plaza and Porvorim. Most of the offices are in the city and if they are shifted, parking will not be an issue and the congestion will reduce by 70%" .
Furtado also said, "I had written two letters to the town and country planning (TCP), chief secretary and other concerned officials to approve parking laws for the city. My letters have been placed in front of the government and in future, only those buildings will be approved which have ample parking facilities. The 13 construction licenses which were kept pending for the last two years have been released to the concerned builders but besides these, no more licenses will be approved until the parking laws are approved."
After an elaborate and much debated discussion, including with opposition members, the council decided to hike the fees for issue of birth and death certificates from 10 to 20, while the fees for correction of names for children born outside the country will be hiked from 35 to 250.
Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues added, "We would not mind issuing the birth and death certificate for free to anyone with a genuine request only once. But for those who are negligent and careless and come repeatedly will be charged this hiked fee." On garbage issue in Taleigao, Furtado said, "With the help of the Taleigao panchayat and the CCP members, we will put up a plant in Taleigao. We are in touch with Portugal consultants and they have agreed to help us out with the plant."