Goa State Pollution Control Board’s directives to Cuncolim Municipal Council on solid waste management have triggered yet another round of battle between the elected Council and Chief Officer, Pandarinath Naik who have been at loggerheads.
Goa State Pollution Control board chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha, directed the Cuncolim Chief Officer to put the solid waste treatment site in order within seven days. However, the ground reality is entirely different. The waste treatment plant is no longer under the administrative control of the Chief Officer since the last two months, with the municipal powers that be having directed him to abstain himself from the treatment plant site. But with GSPCB issuing the directions to him, Chief Officer Pandarinath told The Goan that he is moving a note to the CMC chairperson, Lavita Mascarenhas, to stop interfering in the affairs of the management of the waste treatment plant. He also sought to know the status of the revenue earned by the civic body through the sale of recyclable waste, including plastic and glass from the site.
“I am moving a note to the chairperson not to interfere with the solid waste management site from Monday. After I received GSPCB's directions, I inspected the waste treatment plant site on Thursday, only to find the site in a big mess. Since I was told not to interfere with the functioning of plant site, the blame now lies with the chairperson and vice-chairperson, Mario Moraes, to explain how the situation at the waste treatment site has aggravated after I was told to stay away from the site,” Pandarinath said, adding that he would forward a copy of the note to the Director of Municipal Administration, Elvis Gomes, for information.
On the other hand, CMC vice-chairperson, Mario Moraes, against whom a FIR was lodged by the Chief Officer over an official correspondence, said there’s no question of allowing the Chief Officer to take charge of the waste treatment site.
“The Chief Officer should explain to GSPCB and citizens of Cuncolim how the treatment site was engulfed with fire on the day of the inspection conducted by the Board officials. And, why he did not lodge a complaint with the police complaint against miscreants if he was not personally aware of the culprits behind the fire incident?” he questioned.
Moraes attributed the mess at the waste treatment plant site to the failure of the Chief Officer to streamline door-to-door waste collection.
“When households hand over segregated waste to the CMC workers, the Chief Officer has not created a facility to dump this waste in separate compartments in the vehicles. The elected Council is not to be blamed for this situation. I feel the Chief Officer should shoulder the responsibility,” he added.
On the failure to account for the revenue earned by the Council on the disposal of recyclable waste, Moraes said the Council has earned a revenue of Rs 15,000 from the sale, which will be placed before the CMC Standing Committee meeting scheduled later this month.
GSPCB's directives has threatened the Chief Officer with action, including stringent legal action against him under the Environment Protection Act, if there’s no perceivable change at the waste treatment site within seven days.
During inspection, GSPCB had observed that waste, that is approximately around 0.3 tonnes a day, was collected from the Municipal jurisdiction and dumped at the waste treatment site.
The inspection team also found that no workers were engaged for sorting out the collected waste that is unsegregated, while the organic waste converter was not operational.
The team further noted that the landfill site was not in use, and the Council had failed to produce any details regarding the type and quantity of waste generated and treated at the site.
“The inspection revealed that CMC is handling the municipal solid waste in its jurisdiction, and at the site, in an environmentally unsound manner and in violation of the provision of the Municipal Solid Waste rules, thus causing environment pollution in the vicinity,” the GSPCB notice stated.
