MARGAO
Hazard a guess how many night soil tankers head to the Margao sewage treatment plant (STP) complex to unload sewage sucked from overflowing septic tanks on an average per day?
Well, if sources at the Margao STP are to be believed, night soil tankers make around 15 trips a day on average, emptying sewage into the STP. This brings to the fore the moot question of how many trips the night soil tankers owned by the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) make to the STP every day and the amount of revenue earned by the civic body through these tankers.
Visit the MMC to book a night soil tanker and do not be surprised if you come across a reply that one of the night soil tankers is down for condemnation and the second tanker is used only by the civic body.
When private night soil tankers make hay in respect of the night soil tanker operations, the Margao Municipal Council seemed to have not capitalised on the roaring night soil business for reasons best known to the City Fathers and the municipal babus.
Besides losing the huge revenue-generating potential to the private players, it is indeed surprising that the MMC has not beefed up the fleet of night soil tankers with the entire city not yet connected to the underground sewerage network and overflowing septic tanks being the order of the day.
Otherwise, consider this. The demand for night soil tankers has been on the rise in the commercial capital and Salcete countryside with overflowing septic tanks being the order of the day.
Inquiries have revealed that the MMC owned two night soil tankers, one with an 8,000-litre capacity and the second one with a 3,000-litre capacity. Sources informed that the 8,000-litre capacity generated huge revenue for the civic body, with orders for emptying the septic tanks not only coming from the commercial capital but from the Salcete countryside as well.
The moot question that has baffled City Fathers and Civic Babus is why the municipality did not go for the replacement of the ageing two-decade old 8,000-litre night soil tanker when the vehicle had enriched the MMC coffers by lakhs of rupees during this period.
That’s not all. Another pertinent question may come to haunt the City Fathers as well as the civic babus on the contention issue – why did the MMC not go in for brand new night soil tankers when the private players have been making roaring business?
A municipal official conceded that the private players have been making hay in respect of the night soil tanker business. He, however, hastened to add that, unlike the private contractors, maintenance of the tankers and the rates had come in the way of the civic body providing the service.
“We had found out that the private players were charging less than the rates prescribed by the civic body. Automatically, the private players took away our business. The issue of maintenance of the tankers also affected the service,” the official added.
