the goan I network
MAPUSA
Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo on Wednesday said Goa can be the cleanest State in India if adequate measures were taken to enforce plastic ban in the State.
“The ban on plastic of less than 50 microns thickness, which is creating a huge quantum of waste in Goa, should be implemented very strictly. We will have to ensure that fish, vegetable and fruit vendors, shops and other business outlets do not offer such plastic bags to consumers. If someone fails to comply with the ban, a stiff penalty will have to be imposed on the offenders,” Lobo said.
The Waste Management Minister was addressing a gathering at a function to launch road sweeping machines in Calangute on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
Goa Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Dayanand Sopte, Calangute Sarpanch Shawn Martins, GTDC Chief Engineer Pramod Badami and other officials were also present.
Continuing, Lobo said the government’s Saligao waste treatment plant was providing the facility to 27 panchayats.
“Even after providing such facility if people continue to throw garbage in the open then there is a need to impose hefty fines. Police, deputy collectors, mamlatdars, talathi everyone will have to be given responsibility to impose such fines,” he said.
Lobo admitted that to make Goa the cleanest State in the country was a big challenge for the government, authorities, panchayats, municipalities and the people.
“I think slowly people will realize. It will take some time. It took us eight long years to achieve what we have achieved today,” he said.
Earlier, Lobo complimented the waste pickers who he said were working day and even at nights to keep Calangute, Candolim, Arpora-Nagao and Parra clean.
“We cannot expect only the people who are working for the panchayats to clean the waste. It is our duty to correct anybody who is trying to throw waste in the open.”
