MARGAO
The first phase of cleaning the Comba ring road saw the Margao Municipal workers collecting tonnes of dry and plastic waste dumped along the entire stretch.
In fact, tonnes of collected waste stacked in gunny bags was awaiting transportation from the ring road on Sunday morning, indicating that the fiat issued by the Margao Municipal Chief Officer Rohit Kadam has yielded results.
Environmentalists had feared that non-collection of the tonnes of plastic waste may end up in an environment disaster as it was believed that the waste may finally find its way into the adjoining river Sal.
A ride down the Comba ring road on Sunday revealed that the stretch close to the Comba subway has been cleared of the waste dumped in the low-lying area. However, one could come across waste lying in the low-lying areas along the stretch towards the Old market area.
MMC officials pointed out that the Chief Officer has decided to clear the waste in phases, while admitting that it may take a couple of days to clear the entire stretch of the waste.
Dry and plastic waste has been lying along the Comba ring road over the last few months. Despite the media highlighting the issue as the plastic waste threatens to flow into the river Sal during the monsoons, the civic body did not move with alacrity, while the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had pushed the blame of clearing the waste on the local civic body.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the Margao civic body why the officials did not get the door-to-door waste collection contractors to clear the plastic waste dumped along the Comba ring road when the agreement mandates the contractors to take care of the black spots across the city.
