the goan I network
MARGAO
Three days to go for Fomento’s 60-day termination notice to expire on August 9, Margao Municipal Chairperson Babita Prabhuesai, Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik and others went into a huddle after office hours in the civic body, deliberating on a host of questions, including the question of appointing a Municipal arbitrator to the dispute with the company.
While the civic body has almost prepared its reply to Fomento’s letter after it was vetted by the Advocate General, the reply is expected to be dispatched to the Concessionaire on Wednesday, two days before the termination of concession agreement between the MMC and Fomento will come into force on Friday.
However, neither the Municipal Chairperson nor the Chief Officer have any alternate plan in place in the event Fomento executes its threat to shut down the plant after
August 9 and refuses to accept waste from the civic body after Friday. It appears that the Municipality is pinning its hopes on the South Goa district court to bail out the civic body in the matter, hoping that the court will not stop the civic body from sending waste to the plant on humanitarian grounds. Hearing of Fomento’s petition in the district court is scheduled to come up on August 9. Sources in the know informed that the civic body is bracing up to run the treatment plant in the event the court proceedings go in its favour.
However, the civic body seemed to have no action plan in place in the event the plant is shut down and Fomento does not accept waste from the city due to the non-payment of the termination payment,
pegged around Rs 14 crore.
Meanwhile, after dilly-dallying on the question of appointing a Municipal arbitrator to represent the civic body in the dispute, and after realising that the Concession Agreement provides for arbitration proceedings to resolve disputes between the two sides, the Chairperson and the Chief Officer on Tuesday discussed the probable names of lawyers, who would do justice to the job in the arbitration proceedings.
Fomento had last week asked the civic body to appoint the Municipal arbitrator after having appointed Advocate of the High Court, Ramchandra G Ramani as the company arbitrator to arbitrate upon the dispute with the Municipality. Fomento had stated that both the arbitrators can then in turn jointly appoint the Presiding Arbitrator to arbitrate upon the disputes.
