PANAJI
CCP's nod, however, comes with three specific riders whereby the CCP will seek an undertaking from the government stating the time frame for completion of the infrastructural project on the land and assuring that the land will be used only for the purpose of garbage treatment. The third condition laid down by CCP is for prioritization of the jurisdiction of CCP, Taleigao panchayat and Se Old Goa panchayat for dumping at Bainguinim.
Panaji Mayor Surendra Furtado announced that CCP will now write to the government.
"We wanted to take legal opinion. Following that, TCP Minister Vijai Sardessai went to talk to the Chief Minister on behalf of Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate. CM said that when Goa Solid Waste Management Corporation approaches a financial institution for loan, the land will have to be in its possession and ownership. I agree with this," Mayor Furtado stated.
Explaining the cause of CCP's apprehension about what will happen once the land is parted with, the Mayor said, "CM had not spoken to us. Directorate of Municipal Administration wrote a ten-line letter to CCP ordering the transfer. Things are clearer now."
Mayor Furtado sought to clarify that the CCP has complete faith in CM and Panaji MLA Manohar Parrikar. "He has Panaji's interests at heart and he had promised a permanent solution to Panaji's garbage woes. He will not let us down," Furtado said.
The land admeasuring 1,71,800 sq mts at Bainguinim is demarcated and the buffer zones have been marked out. The land is compounded.
The previous ordinary meeting of CCP had witnessed chaotic scenes after the Ruling and the Opposition corporators clashed over transfer of land at Bainguinim to the Goa Waste Management Corporation.
Ruling corporators had demanded that CCP should execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Goa Solid Waste Management Corporation for utilising the land on a pre-condition that the plant would be used for treatment of garbage within the jurisdiction of CCP and village panchayats of Taleigao and Se Old Goa.
Opposition corporators however contended that as the land was bought and acquired for CCP, it should be immediately transferred to the Goa Waste Management Corporation and non-transfer of the land would further delay the setting up of the plant.
