the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that garbage currently stacked at the Sonsodo hillock would be tackled only by October since nothing could be done about it during the monsoon.
Speaking in the Goa legislative assembly on Wednesday, the CM said that he had just met the Chief Officer of the Margao Municipal Council and officials of the Goa Solid Waste Management Corporation (GSWMC), and that in all likelihood, remediation treatment of the garbage at Sonsodo would begin by October.
The CM was replying to a ‘Calling Attention Motion’ raised by Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco who said that there was “fear and anxiety in the minds of the people” regarding the public nuisance caused
by the failure and malfunctioning of the Sonsodo garbage plant.
Further, the CM said that the GSWMC had agreed to help in the baling of the waste, and that two sheds would be rented for the same in an industrial estate. GSWMC would also help sort out the over 40 tonnes of wet waste at the plant, the CM said, while adding that the government would keep open the option of buying machines to treat the wet waste too.
Meanwhile, on the question of the dues of Fomento, the company who was running the waste treatment plant for the government till recently, the CM said that talks between Fomento, the MMC and the government would go on till a solution is reached.
Fomento had said that the government owes them several crores by way of dues for running the plant, but the CM was non-committal about how much the government would settle Fomento for. “Their payment has to be settled, we’ll have to see what solution comes forth from the talks with them,” Sawant said.
“I’m not saying we won’t pay Fomento at all, but we will have to have discussions and see how much to pay them,” he added.
