the goan I network
MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council was found struggling to collect garbage for the third day in a row, as waste piled up in certain areas due to the failure on the part of the civic body to clear the waste.
The parking lot outside the Aquem side of the Margao railway station resembled an eyesore with waste and garbage littered all around the place.
Similarly, waste piled up at the black spot behind the Margao police station for want of timely clearing of the waste by municipal workers.
Garbage collection in the Margao area of the Margao Municipal Council jurisdiction has been hit hard after the labour contractor suddenly abandoned the work of door-to-door waste collection, prompting the civic body to terminate the contract.
While the existing manpower employed by the civic body is struggling to keep the city clean, barely managing to collect the waste door-to-door in some of the wards, the municipality is bracing to rope in a new contractor as a stop-gap arrangement before the civic body formally floats a tender in this respect.
Aggravating the situation for the MMC was the High Court order barring the civic body from open dumping of waste at the existing Sonsodo dump. This means that the civic body will have to physically segregate the mounds of waste at many of the
places before the same is transported to the Sonsodo plant for treatment.
MMC chairperson Babita Prabhudesai conceded that the city is facing a disastrous situation ever since the existing labour contractor quit the job. She expects the stop gap arrangement to fall into place by Monday or Tuesday.
Sources in the know informed that Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik has put up a note for the consideration of the chairperson to appoint a stop gap contractor to collect he city’s waste as per the government approved rates.
With garbage piling up, especially at the black spots, which receives waste from neighbouring villages, all eyes are focused on the Margao Civic body as even municipal workers anxiously look forward to the city fathers and babus to put a mechanism in place to grapple with the situation.
