the goan I network
MARGAO
With an estimated 14 tons of mixed waste finding its waste in the Municipal jurisdiction from the neighbouring villages, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has resolved to appoint garbage sentinels to reign in unauthorized persons dumping mixed waste at the dark spots on the lines of traffic sentinels.
While the Civic body had in the past resolved to engage garbage sentinels, the proposal got the stamp of approval from the Municipal Standing Committee on Thursday against the backdrop of the recent Sonsodo fire incident and the clamour by the residents of Curtorim and Raia to only handle segregated waste at Sonsodo.
After the meeting, MMC Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai informed that the Standing Committee has approved the garbage sentinel proposal on the lines of the traffic sentinel scheme, adding that the proposal would be formally placed before the full-fledged Council meeting for vetting.
The Chairperson said that the proposed garbage sentinel scheme will be initially implemented at the dozen dark spots along the Municipal borders, adding that only after assessing the efficacy of the scheme, the same will be extended to other problematic spots across the city.
“We have received a host of suggestions from the Councilors and the Chief Officer to have our own garbage sentinels. At the Standing Committee, we have decided to give the proposal a try since we have received a lot of flak over Sonsodo fire, especially over the unsegregated waste,” she told the media after the meeting.
Saying that the Chief Officer and other Municipal officials will sit down and frame the guidelines on how to go about implementing the garbage sentinel scheme, Babita said the Municipality may imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the violators and suitably reward the person helping to detect the violators with evidence.
“The scheme will be implemented at the discretion of the Council. We will fine tune the whole idea so that it pays rich dividends,” she added.
“I always find around 18-20 gunny bags laden with waste dumped near the Arlem RTO office almost everyday but we have no idea who is behind the dumping and at what time the waste is brought into the city,” she said, adding that the garbage sentinel will help keep the miscreants at bay.
As per rough estimates, the MMC receives around 14 tons of mixed waste from the neighbouring villages on a daily basis. The unauthorized dumping of the mixed waste has given rise to the dark spots, which has now come under the scanner of the High Court.
The Municipality collects segregated waste from the households, the mixed waste coming into the city is from the neighbouring villages and threatens to derail the MMC’s waste collection. Attempts by the Civic body to get the neighbouring village Panchayats for discussion on the issue had come a cropper with only two Sarpanchas making it for the meeting called by the MMC Chairperson.
Complaints made to the District Collector (South Goa) to find a mechanism to stop the unsegregated village waste from finding its way into the city has fallen
on deaf ears.
To make a difference, MMC needs
to segregate garbage: sources
MARGAO: Even as the State government mulls handing over the Sonsodo waste dumping site to the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) after settling Foment Green, senior officials in private say the decision will not overnight change the game unless the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) hands over waste to the dumping site in a segregated manner.
“Handling the waste at the site one thing and segregating the waste at source is quite different and
which falls in the domain of the Civic body,” remarked the official, associated with the GWMC.
The official pointed out that the GWMC will not be able to bring a turn-around Sonsodo unless the Civic body begins waste segregation at source.
“The road map before the Margao Municipal Council is clear, there is no option other than segregating the waste at source’, the official pointed out.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had informed that the government has decided to hand over the Sonsodo garbage dump to the GWMC for better management. The brief before the Corporation, once roped in by the government, would be to get rid of the existing waste, estimated around two lakh metric tons, and to treat the daily waste transported to the plant by the Civic body.
