PANAJI:  The commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji, Mr Elvis Gomes said that even after seven years since the city civic body was upgraded from being a municipality to a Corporation, it is presently no more than a ‘Class A’ municipal council.

“In fact, a number of provisions of the City of Panaji Corporation Act 2002 still remain to be implemented,” he added.
It may be recalled that the CPC Act 2002 was notified on March 31, 2003.
The CCP commissioner told the pressmen that Section 255 of the Act, which is an important Section bringing all the planning and developmental works in the capital city under the jurisdiction of the Corporation, specifically needs to be notified and still remains un-notified.
“The particular Section maintains that the Corporation shall be the planning and development authority for the city of Panaji, but these tasks are still looked after by the Planning and Development Authority,” he added, pointing out that a House committee has already raised questions on this matter.
Section 255 of the CPC Act 2002, which deals with town planning states that “On and from the commencement of this Act, the Corporation shall be deemed to be a planning area in terms of the provisions of Section 18 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974.” “On the publication of this Act in the Official Gazette, the Panaji planning area shall stand withdrawn from North Goa Planning and Development Authority and all functions, powers and duties of Planning Authority for the Corporation area in terms of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 and the regulations framed there under shall be performed by the Corporation and the Corporation shall stand declared as a planning area in terms of Section 18 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974,” it further notes.
Speaking further, Mr Gomes said that as per the CPC Act 2002, the Corporation needed to have a planning section, which has still not been set up. “As also the technical section of the Corporation remains to be upgraded,” he informed, adding that the city engineer of the corporation, who has powers at par with the chief engineer of the public works department, is yet to be appointed.    
The city engineer is a must for the CCP as the civic body, presently has to rush to the PWD, every time the estimates for the city works crosses the Rs 6-lakh mark, which is the sanctioning limit of the executive municipal engineer.
“The mayor has also sent a personal note to the government authorities requesting them to appoint a city engineer,” he pointed out.
Mr Agnelo Diniz, the legal advisor to the Corporation has recently advised the civic body that the said rules as regards executive municipal engineer having a sanctioning limit of Rs 6 lakh do not apply to the Corporation and the Corporation is not required to obtain technical sanction of the PWD authorities, as per the CPC Act 2002. The observation of Mr Diniz would now be placed before the meeting of the CCP councillors, and then forwarded to the state legal department.
The Corporation deals with important official procedures pertaining to the public namely construction licence, occupancy certificate, NOC for water/electric connection/sewerage connection, house/property tax transfer, income certificate, trade licence, advertisement permission and collection of house tax. It also handles certificate of birth/death, information under Right of Information Act, permission to use municipal premises/ garden/public places/ hearse van, public grievances and approach to superiors.