the goan I network
MARGAO
It was 9.30 pm on Thursday. A Margao Municipal Council team of officials along with a city father and the media in tow were on night patrol to warn citizens against disposing of their waste at the black spots and the transfer stations or face hefty fines under the Garbage Sentinel Scheme.
The nigh patrol, which started from the Gogol junction, culminated near the KTC bus stand and the common refrain emanating from the citizens caught in the act of disposing of their waste at the transfer stations was that their waste was not collected by the civic workers.
At places such as near the KTC bus stand, the gadda people were frank in admitting that they have no option but to dispose of their waste at the transfer stations with the civic body not working out any mechanism for their waste generated between 5 pm till midnight.
The late night exercise exposed the chinks in the MMC’s door-to-door project, with citizens blaming the civic body for forcing them to dispose of their waste at the transfer stations. “How can we store the waste in our apartments for two days. If the workers come on time to collect the waste, there’s no occasion for the citizens to dispose of the waste at the transfer stations,” remarked a resident. In fact, a resident came to one of the transfer stations with segregated waste, indicating that while he had segregated the waste at source, the workers did not turn up to lift it from his doorsteps, throwing up a question whether citizens can be hauled up for disposing of their waste at the transfer stations when municipal workers play truant.
The episode further raised questions whether it was right on part of the civic body to introduce the Garbage Sentinel Scheme when the basic logistics of collecting waste door-to-door is yet to be streamlined in the city.
The night patrol also exposed the civic body for failing to provide a mechanism for the fast food gaddas, operating in the evenings till late night, to dispose of their waste. A similar situation stared at the gaddas, which resume their business in the wee hours of the day, with the civic body making no provision for collection of their waste.
