The garbage inside the Sonsodo shed caught fire yet again, throwing open the question of whether the gravity of the situation has still not sunk into the civic fathers of Margao municipality or is a sheer care-a-damn attitude when it comes to the health of citizens.
Sonsodo has been witnessing a series of fires since April 12 this year, primarily due to methane gas released from the waste heap, let alone the suspected electrical short circuits. Lest we forget, the Margao Municipal Council had recently put before the High Court a series of measures to tackle the fire, giving an impression that it is seized of the matter and would ensure that fire incidents are not repeated.
On Thursday, when the fire broke out, the fire-fighting team made a herculean effort to contain it, including the use of twelve thousand litres of water, and once again, the old story repeated itself. The MMC stood exposed since it failed to keep its assurance to the High Court that it would churn the 10,000 metric tonnes of waste inside and constantly water the mound inside the shed to offset the release of methane gas. The plan submitted to the court also included setting up six fire hydrants and a proposal to install an MS pipeline for water supply. The MMC had set a time frame of a month to put all mechanisms in place.
Thursday’s fire caught the civic body on the wrong foot and exposed the callousness despite the court’s intervention. Moreover, the constant fires have been a health hazard to the people in the area. It appears that the safety of citizens is of least concern here.
On the disposal of ten thousand metric tonnes of waste inside the shed, the municipality had assured the court that it would be done by September 2023. It is now a little over a month, and the civic body still has a monumental task at hand.
The action plan drawn by the municipality appears to be long forgotten. It needed the court’s intervention to get the wheels of the system moving. It is for the authorities to take stock once again and understand why the action plan is still not in place. It is due to the lethargy coupled with a lack of intent that is raising suspicion of fires being deliberately triggered to achieve an objective. The Shadow Council has accused the council of the fire incidents being deliberate attempts to coerce the court to agree to the dubious schemes amounting to crores of rupees proposed by the city fathers. The turn of events baffles the mind and leads to suspicion of an agenda.
The State government had maintained earlier that work should stop at any point in time, so the question is, why did it stop? And who is monitoring now? The fire at Sonsodo is testimony to the fact that the ground situation has not improved. The municipality must explain why it has failed in the assurances given to the court and how it plans to go ahead in handling the waste inside the shed.
