MARGAO
Sao Jose de Areal village witnessed an uproar on Saturday after the villagers caught red handed two different parties for allegedly dumping waste along the road side of the village. One of the parties was found doing business in the neighbouring village of Curtorim.
Alert villagers along with the village Sarpanch Joyce Dias caught the two persons and slapped fine of Rs 5,000 each. The residents also took the keys of the two two-wheelers and made it clear that they will return the keys only after the payment of the penalty.
The action, however, triggered a row of sorts after the parties expressed their inability to pay the fine.
What’s interesting to note is that the shop owner, who came rushing to the site after his two employees were caught in the act of disposing of the waste, also refused to pay the fine, saying the employees had acted without his knowledge.
The owner, who runs a NGO, maintained that since his employees, caught in the act of waste dumping, has joined him only recently, he called for leniency, saying they would not again dump the waste at the road side.
The second party also refused to pay the fine.
The Maina-Curtorim police also rushed to the site to avert any law and order situation at the site.
Sarpanch Joyce maintained that the roadside in question, along the border with the villages of Davorlim and Curtorim, have become a waste dumping site for a long time now. “This is not a place for waste dumping. The Goa Waste Management Corporation is collecting the waste twice a week, but that does not mean that people can just come here and dump the waste and pose nuisance to the villagers and the passers-by,” the sarpanch said.
The sarpanch later told the media in the evening that the shop owner, who runs a NGO later paid the fine of Rs 5,000 to the panchayat. As far as the second party is concerned, the sarpanch said they have taken the challan. “We will pursue the matter as per the law since the party has violated the law concerning waste dumping,” Joycee said.
