MARGAO
Come the new financial year, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) will levy garbage fees on
the 45,000 households, including the commercial establishments, via the house tax system that is already in place.
This implies that the civic body will not charge the households the garbage fees separately but
through the house tax.
The civic body has also plans to tackle the bioÂmedical waste generated in the city by the clinics
and hospitals with the guidance of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB).
Meanwhile, the Margao Municipal Council has decided to kick start its door-to-door waste
segregation awareness programme, beginning from February 16, in 10 ward, with Chairperson Dr
Babita Angle Prabhudesai unveiling a plan to cover the entire city with the awareness programme within the next 1Â2 months.
The MMC Chairperson reiterated that there is no room for a parallel system of waste segregation in the city, asserting that people such as Rajendra Talak of Clean Margao, Green Margao are welcome
to join the waste segregation awareness programme.
Addressing the media, Babita said that municipal workers and officials will fan out in the 10 wards
in the jurisdiction of Fatorda constituency to spread awareness by distributing pamphlets to the
residential households. She said that an appeal would be made to the residential societies to
cooperated with the civic body and hand over the segregated waste to the municipal workers.
To a question, she said the MMC is slowly putting its infrastructure on waste segregation in
place, while conceding that it will take some time to achieve the desired results. “Right now, we have already started work on collecting segregated waste from certain wards in Fatorda. What we are now trying to achieve is to carry out the job in a systematic manner through an awareness
programme,” she said.
On the infrastructural front, Babita said that the director of Municipal Administration Elvis Gomes
has promised to provide additional waste bins, adding that the municipality has plans to purchase
two garbage trucks on a priority basis.
‘Within two months, I am confident the entire city will be covered under the awareness programme.
We will go to the people with a plea to hand over segregated waste and to desist from throwing
waste by the road sides,” she said.
To another query, she said that while the SHGs and municipal workers will collect the segregated
dry waste once in three day, the same waste will be further segregated at the Sonsodo plant site.
On Rajendra Talak’s proposal to start waste segregation in the two municipal wards of 11 ad 12,
Babita said the proposal did not find favour with the civic body for the simple reason that the municipality does not want a parallel system in the city. “Talak and all others are welcome to join
the municipality to carry out the awareness drive,” she added.
