PANAJI
Struggling to barely manage the gigantic challenge posed by the garbage problem of its cities, the State government has set up a steering committee under the chairmanship of the Urban Development Secretary, W V R Murthy to promote composting of bio-degradable waste and also to co-ordinate marketing of the product on a gigantic scale.
The committee is tasked with promoting the setting up of composting units in all the eleven municipal councils in Goa and also the capital's Corporation of the City of Panaji, besides tagging these units with fertilizer marketing companies in the State so that compost is concurrently promoted and sold by them parallel with conventional, chemical fertilizers.
Also on the steering committee notified by the State government last week is the managing director of M/s Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd, Zuarinagar.
CCP Commissioner, Shashank Tripathi and the chief officers of the civic bodies of Margao and Mormugao, besides the Agriculture Secretary Daulat Hawaldar, Agriculture Director Madhav Kelkar and the managing director of the Goa State Horticulture Corporation are also named on the committee.
The Mission Director of the Swachh Bharat in the State will be its convenor, says the notification issued by Dr Tariq Thomas, IAS, who is the Urban Development director.
The committee is also tasked with finalising a strategy to promote use of city compost in the State's agriculture and horticulture sector.
It will monitor the pricing of city compost sold in the State under a notified policy and also prepare an actionable plan for 100 percent processing of the waste churned out in Goa's cities.
Currently only the CCP which has jurisdiction over the capital city and part of the neighbouring Taleigao constituency has a fairly efficient collection and disposal system for waste which is segregated at source into biodegradable 'wet' waste and the dry non-biodegradable.
The CCP also operates two composting units around the Panaji bus stand area.
The panel headed by Murthy is now expected to draw up road maps for the other 11 civic bodies of the State to not only encourage them to set up composting units, but also prepare blueprints for them to manage the logistics of collecting waste from their respective city dwellers to feed these units.
