SANGUEM
The Curchorem Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) on Monday unanimously resolved not to permit the disposal of any garbage from outside the four talukas of Quepem, Dharbandora, Sanguem and Canacona at the Cacora Waste Treatment Plant.
The issue of disposal of wet garbage of Margao Municipal Council (MMC) at the Cacora WTP was discussed at a special council meeting which was also attended by Power Minister and Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral.
The issue to oppose the disposal of garbage at the Cacora WTP from outside the four talukas arose after the high court permitted the disposal of 20 tonnes of wet garbage from MMC at the Cacora WTP on a daily basis.
The High Court had taken into consideration the underutilisation of the 100-tonne capacity at the Cacora WTF.
At the meeting, all 15 councillors strongly opposed such a move by the government and resolved not to permit any outside garbage for disposal at the Cacora WTP.
They claimed that the WTP was set for garbage disposal needs of Sanguem, Quepem, Darbandora and Canacona talukas.
The council also resolved to file an intervenor application in the Public Interest Litigation presently pending before the High Court for final order to express their say in the matter.
Cabral while agreeing with the views expressed by the CCMC said that the Cacora WTP was specifically built with a purpose to treat garbage from the four talukas of Quepem, Sanguem, Canacona and Dharbandora, taking into consideration the needs of these four talukas in the next 20-25 years.
He claimed that while the Cacora WTP may not run to its fullest capacity as of now, garbage from these four talukas would surely increase in the near future and taking this into consideration, the Cacora WTP was devised with s maximum capacity to dispose 100 tonnes of garbage per day, with 60 percent dry garbage and 40 percent wet garbage.
Incidentally, the Cacora WTP presently gets only about 18-20 tonnes of garbage per day and is running much below the normal level of its scheduled operation.
Cabral pointed out that if the contractor suffers any losses on account of handling less quantity of garbage than it is the responsibility of the government to reimburse the contractor of the losses suffered.
“Under no circumstances will we permit the garbage from Margao to be brought for disposal at the Cacora WTP,” claimed Cabral.
He, however, criticised a few panchayat secretaries for not sending garbage to the Cacora WTP on grounds that the panchayats have no garbage for outside disposal.
“This view of some secretaries needs to be questioned as there cannot be any panchayat without garbage in today’s world,” claimed Cabral.
