MAPUSA
Blaming bordering villages for the garbage popping up at several entry points in Mapusa, Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Rohan Kavlekar said the civic body has been doing an excellent job in tackling its waste with a near perfect door-to-door garbage collection system in place.
“Mapusa looks unclean because neigbouring panchayats dump waste in the municipal area at any hour of the day. People from Verla-Canca, Assagao, Bastora etc dump their waste at the entry points of Mapusa and we have to unnecessarily face the brunt of attacks,” said Kavlekar.
The chairperson was responding to the recent allegation by Calangute MLA, Michael Lobo who referred Mapusa city as always dirty.
Lobo at the inauguration of the garbage truck for Verla-Canca had said Mapusa was infested with garbage throughout the day and blamed lack of guidance for the mess.
The MMC chairperson said the municipality was treating almost 25 tonnes of garbage per day. Explaining the mammoth exercise that goes in collection and treating of waste in Mapusa, he said 1000 dust bins were circulated for door-to-door garbage collection in the city, unlike just 200 dustbins circulated in Parra.
The civic body has engaged the services of 300 labourers to collect waste and 18 vehicles were pressed to service only for garbage management.
“Besides, looking after the city waste, we also collect waste from the Colvale central jail, sub-yard and all the government offices in our jurisdiction. These government offices do not pay any fees to the MMC,” Kavlekar said.
Disclosing future plans of the council, the chairperson said the MMC is in the process of outsourcing waste collection and maintenance of the fish and vegetable market.
He further disclosed that the civic body was in the process of setting up a garbage treatment plant which will treat its own waste. “We will be the only municipality in the State which will have its own waste treatment plant. Besides, neither the government nor the municipality will invest a single rupee to set up the plant,” Kavlekar said.
He said once the plant was set up, he would invite neighbouring panchayats to take advantage of the facility and treat their waste at the plant.
The council has recently given a go-ahead for the waste treatment plant. The civic body is expected to float the expression of interest for setting up of the plant.
QRT ensures waste free Mapusa
MAPUSA: Apart from a systematic door-to-door garbage collection plan, the Mapusa civic body has introduced the concept of “Quick Response Team” (QRT) to tackle garbage menace at the spur of the moment.
“Any councillor or the staff of the civic body can click a picture of a garbage dump within the Mapusa municipal area at any point of time during the day and post it in a specially formed WhatsApp group. The QRT team goes to the spot and clears the dump within minutes,” said MMC Chairperson Rohan Kavlekar.
He said two vehicles along with two workers have been dedicated to QRT to tackle the waste problem in the city.
