MARGAO
Margao Municipal Council on Wednesday finally knocked the doors of the High Powered Coordination Committee headed by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on the Sonsodo bioremediation issue, but not before taking exactly a month to dash off a letter to the government on the matter.
The letter addressed to the Director of Municipal Administration has called for convening a meeting of the HPCC under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister at the earliest. That the MMC did not show any sense of urgency vis-Ã -vis the burning issue became evident from the fact that while the civic body did not deem fit to dash off the letter on a priority, it has also not explained in the letter why the HPCC should call for an urgent meeting of the HPCC.
In fact, the civic body has merely asked the DMA to convene the HPCC meeting at the earliest, notwithstanding that election code of conduct may come anytime in December, scuttling all decisions on the burning issue.
Incidentally, the MMC has pointed out to the DMA that though the Goa Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) had prepared a DPR for the bio-remediation and scientific disposal of the old and existing dump at Sonsodo and finalized the contractor, the Sub-committee had observed some practical difficulties as regards to the problem faced by the MMC in respect of the additional land for stacking of segregated and inert material, besides the requirement of landfill, during the execution of the project.
What’s important to note is the fact that while the Municipal sub-committee headed by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat had taken the decision to approach the HPCC on October 25, it took a month for the civic body to finalise the minutes of the sub committee meeting and communicate the decision to the government.
Sources in the municipality pointed out that with the civic body taking a month to send the letter to the government and the election code likely to come into effect in December, the question of disposing of the existing dump yard may be pushed on the back till the election process ends.
