MMC's waste collection outsourcing plan hits roadblock

Photo Credits: door waste collection in Margao

(File photo) The door-to-door waste collection in Margao.

MARGAO

Margao Municipal Council’s proposal to outsource door-to-door waste collection and transportation has failed to find favour with the government, with the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) returning the proposal to the civic body for re-examination and re-consideration.

Over two months after the Margao civic body mooted the proposal to outsource door-to-door waste collection and transportation at a annual cost of Rs 2.11 crore, the DMA has made it unequivocally clear to the Margao civic body that the government might not be in a position to approve the proposal given the huge financial implications.

“My office has sent back to the civic body the waste outsourcing proposal on two counts. One, let the new body take a decision afresh on the issue after re-examining the issues involved in outsourcing of waste collection since the proposal was made by the previous body at the fag end of its term. Secondly, let me make it quite clear that the DMA will not be in a position to fund the outsourcing proposal amounting to a whopping Rs 2.11 crore annually," DMA Elvis Gomes told The Goan.

He raised apprehensions that many other civic bodies would then knock the doors of the government for funding of waste collection if relaxation is made for the Margao civic body. “I have already briefed the new Margao civic chief Babita Angle and my official rejection of the proposal has gone to the civic body," he said.

When The Goan contacted MMC chairperson Babita Angle to shed light on the latest development on the waste collection outsourcing proposal, she conceded that the proposal has not found favour with the government and the Director of Municipal Administration. Babita, however, is taken aback by the DMA’s rejection of the proposal, saying the Margao civic body had proposed outsourcing door-to-door waste collection based on the recommendation of the High Powered Committee headed by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. She wondered whether the High Powered Committee had recommended the door-to-door waste outsourcing proposal without any plans to fund the programme or had expected the civic body to utilise funds from the civic coffer to finance the exercise.

Babita, however, said that the proposal needs certain modification and changes in tune with the city requirements. “Since the municipality has an army of workers drafted for waste collection, the proposal ought to have included a clause that the contractor should engage the civic workers. Secondly, the contractor should also be made to hire municipal machinery, including garbage trucks and infrastructure for the outsourcing work. Otherwise, the entire infrastructure would remain idle and cause loss for the civic body," Babita added.

The High Powered Committee had recommended around five months ago outsourcing of the door-to-door waste collection exercise to a private contractor as the programme had virtually hit a block with the proposal undertaken by the Self Help Groups not producing the desired results. In fact, door-to-door waste collection has gone haywire in many areas of the city with many a SHG volunteers abandoning the work on grounds that the work is not paying.

The MMC had implemented door-to-door waste collection in August last year by undertaking the work departmentally. Months later, the work as entrusted to the Self Help Groups after the civic body expressed its inability to bear the huge expenditure on the project, around Rs 18 lakh a month.