MARGAO
What was feared all along at Sonsodo has come true even before the monsoons could arrive with full force. The unmotorable condition of the road leading to the waste treatment plant paralyzed and stopped the disposal of garbage generated in the commercial capital on Friday.
Heavy trucks loaded with garbage, including the garbage compactors, could not unload the waste into the plant. One could find the garbage compactors-laden with waste lined and parked outside the plant at Sonsodo throughout Friday.
Margao municipal drivers, driving the garbage trucks, declined to drive the garbage-laden trucks on the unmotorable road fearing that the vehicles may turn turtle with the road dotted with innumerable craters. They pointed out that a portion of the road is almost washed out and settled down, so much so that the vehicles will get stuck up.
With the trucks unable to unload the daily waste, and the vehicles loaded with garbage, a crisis of sorts is staring at the Margao Municipal Council and the citizens at large over the garbage disposal.
Officials in private conceded that unless the garbage vehicles unload the waste into the waste treatment plant, the vehicles will not be in a position to collect the city waste on Saturday. An MMC official has warned that garbage may rot in the city if the same is not collected on Saturday for want of vehicles.
Margao municipal technical officials, who rushed to Sonsodo after the vehicles could not unload the garbage, conceded that the road leading to the waste treatment plant is in an unmotorable state.
With hardly any options available for the civic body, given that the monsoon has almost set in, the municipal council has mooted stop-gap measures, including levelling the road with rubbles for the vehicles to ply into the plant.
A municipal engineer pointed out that the road will be repaired with the help of MMC workers in the next two days before monsoons set in.
Municipal drivers working on the garbage trucks pointed out that they are indeed facing a risk to their lives since the road is not at all motorable.
“If vehicles cannot ply on the road now, just imagine what would be the state of affairs when the monsoon fury is at its worst,” remarked a driver.
He added: “Neither the City Fathers nor the officials moved with alacrity to repair the road in question over the last one year. They only blamed the missing file pertaining to the road, but never weighed other options, how to make the road motorable and secure the lives of the garbage drivers and workers.”
Who is responsible for unmotorable road?
MARGAO:
Who’s responsible for the unmotorable condition of the road leading to the Sonsodo waste treatment plant -- the Municipal system, the City father and the powers that be or the administration?
The MMC had at its July 9 meeting resolved to take up the repair and construction of the Sonsodo road at a cost of Rs 40 lakh. The MMC had even tendered the work, but just before the work order could be handed over to the successful bidder, the file went mysteriously missing.
While the file tracking system had last tracked the file in the chamber of the then MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, the officer was bold enough in saying the file was sent to the chamber of the Chairperson, never to return to his chamber.
As the office of the Chief Officer and the Chairperson resorted to a blame game and with officials attributing the episode to the bare fact that the file went missing after the favourite contractor of the powers that be did not bag the contract, the MMC had never explored other options to get the Sonsodo road repaired and reduce the risks posed to the garbage drivers and workers.
