MARGAO
Wednesday will be a D-Day for the Margao Municipal Council as the High Court will resume hearing on the vexed Sonsodo issue as the civic body is required to file a compliance report on the host of directions issued by the Director of Urban Development in respect of the waste dumping site.
This is the fourth time in the last one week that Sonsodo will come under the High Court scanner after the civic body utterly failed to comply with its own timelines to put the Action Plan on Sonsodo in place.
Sonsodo had first come up for hearing before the High Court on July 10 when the MMC submitted an application seeking extensions of the timelines to put the action plan at Sonsodo in place. Not only did the MMC face the ire of the High Court, but the Court directed the South Goa Collector, Asvin Chandru, IAS to inspect the waste dump and file a status report on the ground reality at Sonsodo on July 11.
On July 12, the High Court passed an oral order mandating the MMC Chief Officer to file a report before the Court regards compliance with the directives in the order dated July 11 issued by the Department of Urban Development.
In fact, Justice M S Sonak and Justice Bharat Deshpande had warned that the Court will be constrained to initiate action against those involved if there are no compliances this time.
“Considering the experience, we direct the MMC, including its Chief Officer, to give this matter the utmost priority, and without giving the usual or, at times, ingenious excuses, the directions in the order dated 11.07.2023 must be complied with,” the court had observed.
By the July 11 directions, the Director, Urban Development had told the MMC Chief Officer to report to the Secretary (UD) regarding the waste management activities carried out at Sonsodo site at Margao on day-to-day basis. The Chief Officer was further told to procure three additional bailing machines to bail the dry waste which is stored in the existing shed.
The Chief Officer was further told to transport 30 metric tons of wet waste from Sonsodo to the Waste Management Plant at Saligao.
As far as the 10,000 metric ton of matured waste lying inside the Sonsodo waste management shed, the MMC was told to remove 5,000 MTs and shift the same on the ground floor at compost storage area immediately to avoid fire incidents. This work shall be commenced immediately and shall be completed within 60 days.
Sonsodo had witnessed a flurry of activity post directions from the High Court, with the Chief Officer setting up an office at the site and deputing Municipal engineers to work in rotation.
It is learnt that the Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar was huddled with the Municipal High Court lawyer to give final touches to the affidavit which will be filed in the court on July 19.
