MARGAO
Waste collection & disposal and sewage discharge handling, besides a decent burial place for the dead to rest in peace, are amongst the bare basic amenities a civic body is mandated to dispense to its citizens in the discharge of its duties and responsibilities.
Madgavkars may realise the bitter truth that their very civic body, the A-Class Margao Municipal Council (MMC), has been under the lens of the High Court over its failure to address these burning issues plaguing the commercial capital.
Indeed, it’s a sheer coincidence that all these three issues have come under the High Court scanner in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the spirited citizens seeking Court intervention to get the MMC to address these burning issues.
If the High Court has pulled up the civic body in waste handling after the municipality was exposed hollow, records show that this is not the first time the MMC has come under the Court scanner. Citizens have knocked on the Court doors on major issues such as garbage disposal, sewage discharge in stormwater drains and water bodies and the kabrastan for the city’s Muslim community.
A close look at the PILs has revealed that the MMC has been found wanting in addressing these burning issues, forcing citizens to knock on the Court’s doors for justice and to discharge its duties mandated under the Goa Municipalities Act. A report.
Sonsodo
The burning Sonsodo imbroglio had first come under the High Court scanner over a decade ago when a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by an environmentalist had helped to cover the Sonsodo legacy dump with tarpaulin sheets to prevent the flow of leachate into the neighbouring wells and water bodies.
Sonsodo came under the High Court lens again around four years ago when an NGO, Citizens for Sonsodo, filed a PIL in 2019 through its secretary Roque Mascarenhas, a resident of Curtorim, over the delay by the authorities, including the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), to dispose of the legacy dump. Agencies such as the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) and the MMC came under scrutiny as the Court set the timeline for the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump, and the disposal of the RDF and inert generated during the exercise.
Even as the GWMC went about its job to remediate the legacy dump as per the Court directions, MMC’s wet waste disposal mechanism came under the High Court lens earlier this year during the hearing of the PIL.
High Court’s directions to file a status report on garbage disposal at Sonsodo opened a can of worms, exposing hollow the MMC’s abject failure to treat the daily waste, the crumbling walls of the waste management shed for want of maintenance, and the shed playing host to fires and smoke, culminating in the strictures against the Council, and court’s directions to bring about a turnaround as per the timeline.
Sewage disposal
If the migrant-inhabited Azad Nagar locality, situated just metres away from the Margao railway station, is in the process of being connected to the city's underground sewage line, it is purely because of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a resident of Navelim Prof Antonio Alvares.
For, Alvares had knocked on the High Court doors with a plea seeking directions to the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to stop the rampant discharge of raw sewage and wastewater in the drains.
Reason: The raw sewage and wastewater has been flowing to the drains, devastating the picturesque Salpem Lake in Navelim and the river Sal. And, Alvares has moved the High Court to draw its attention to the failure of the MMC to stop the sewage flow in the water bodies.
The High Court’s intervention has forced the MMC to get the migrant-inhabited Azad Nagar colony connected to the underground sewage line, even though Alvares has brought to the notice of the Court areas such as Khareband, Kharelem, which are not connected to the sewage line till date.
Kabrastan
Another burning issue plaguing the commercial capital over the decades that has now come under the High Court scanner is the kabrastan for the Muslim community. The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) had faced the music in the court during the hearing of the sensitive matter before the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) was appointed the nodal agency to execute work on the burial grounds.
The petitioner had knocked on the High Court doors since the MMC had acquired land admeasuring 30,000 square metres at Sonsodo back in 2011 to set up a kabrastan.
The matter is presently pending in Court as the GSUDA was supposed to submit the report of the consultant appointed by the agency to study the project and recommend ways to go ahead with the construction.
Will MMC wake up after HC raps and fix pressing issues?
MARGAO
Will the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) learn a lesson or two from the strictures passed by the High Court on the Sonsodo garbage imbroglio and pull up its socks in addressing a host of equally burning and pressing issues plaguing the commercial capital, including the rising stray dogs population, rampant encroachments on pavements, footpaths and on Municipal properties; crumbling heritage, parking woes et al?
This question should certainly come to haunt the Margao City Fathers and Babus, including the powers that be controlling the MMC, including Congress-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat, before spirited citizens knock on the High Court doors to address these burning issues and protect citizens from the strays and the city from encroachments and illegalities.
Indeed, High Court’s directions on Sonsodo should serve as a wake-up call for the High Court to gird up its loins and fix these issues before citizens knock on the doors of the Judiciary for relief.
Stray dogs
The stray dog issue has been under the scanner of the Judiciary since the late 90s when the Court imposed a ban on the killing of dogs. The same order had mandated the local civic bodies, including the municipalities, to undertake Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme to bring down the stray dog population.
Welcome to the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), where even though the stray dogs menace is under the Court scanner, the civic body has been dragging its feet to sign a fresh Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an NGO to take forward the ABC programme in the commercial capital.
Take note, MMC’s MoU with the NGO expired on December 31, 2020. Since then, neither the elected Council nor the municipal administration headed by the Chief Officer has displayed a sense of urgency to ink a fresh MoU and put the ABC programme on the tracks
Encroachments
If the order of the High Court in the late 90s saw the removal of encroachments along the roadsides and pavements, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) may face a similar whip if one goes by the ground reality in the commercial capital.
The rampant encroachments on the city footpaths and pavements even prompted MMC councillor Mahesh Amonkar to caution the rulers that the civic body may face the music from the High Court if the municipality fails to crack a whip against the illegalities.
That’s not all. Sources say dozens of gaddas have surfaced along the roadsides in the last two decades with the municipal administration turning a blind eye to the illegalities, demanding to know whether the officers will wake up only after being pulled up by the court.
Sources further questioned the silence of the municipal administration with fast food gaddas making a permanent presence at the old bus stand and the MMC-acquired land opposite the KTC bus stand.
