The politics behind the vexed garbage issue has started stinking more than the garbage itself. And it has come back to haunt Panaji once again, four months after the Saligao plant had refused to accept the capital city’s waste. This time around the CCP decided to give a tit-for-tat response refusing to accept sewerage coming from Calangute and Saligao.
It was in June this year that a temporary understanding was reached after the Minister for Solid Waste Management Michael Lobo intervened and agreed to set up an extension unit behind Heera petrol Pump in Panaji to treat 25 tonnes of wet garbage from Panaji and Taleigao. The agreement was that till this unit is in place, the Saligao plant would continue to accept 10 tonnes of garbage from the city. However, the temporary unit never materialised and Panaji continued to grapple with the issue of garbage disposal falling back on Saligao.
With Saligao treatment plant running beyond its 100-tonne capacity, there is no option for them but to cut down on the inflow of garbage. Panaji has no option either since it is incapable of handling the 30 tonnes of waste it generates daily, whether they attribute it to tourists is immaterial. The situation has now escalated into a political one with the Corporation of the City of Panaji retaliating by sending back 28 sewage tankers from Calangute and Saligao which were headed for the Tonca plant. Either way, the politics that is being played in the background is finally going to hurt the common man since CCP has already sounded that it may be forced to stop door-to-door garbage collection if there is no breakthrough and Saligao will have no option to treat its sewage.
That brings us to a bigger question. Why were there no alternate plans taking shape even now? Every time the CCP has been bidding for time and there is no Plan B on the horizon. With the government sitting pretty on its stability plank and BJP legislators safely in the saddle, it should have been relatively easier to begin the spadework. If we may recall, the Congress-turned-BJP MLA Antanasio Monserrate alias Babush had promised setting up of a state-of-the-art garbage treatment plant in Bainguinim in his manifesto for the May bypoll, leave alone the solemn vows like moving casinos from Mandovi within 100 days and rejuvenation and beautification of the St Inez creek. While Babush has time and again sought a review of the projects under Smart City and demanded it to be a participative process, he has failed to address the crucial garbage issue till now.
It is time Chief Minister Pramod Sawant steps in and stems the rotten politics that is playing in the background. Legislators shouldn’t be allowed to milk this issue for political benefits. The larger interest of the capital city and its people should come first. Seeking time means CCP is only postponing the inevitable. With Panaji already out of time, legislators, city fathers and stakeholders need to come to the table and find a way out.
