Questions raised on whether civic officials have followed up on early convening of HPCC meet
Setting up a waste treatment mechanism at Sonsodo did not find a mention at the Margao Municipal Council meeting held on Tuesday.
MARGAO
Tuesday’s meeting of the Margao Municipal Council discussed and deliberated on a host of issues plaguing Sonsodo –- be it on construction of a concrete road with gutters, rainwater harvesting tank, a ramp etc.
That’s not all. The Council further gave a nod for the supply of packing strips of 12mm rolls for bailing of plastic waste through the 14th Finance grants. A couple of City Fathers even reminded Civic Chief Damu Shirodkar about the pending bills the civic body is required to pay to the contractors for deploying JCB machines for waste management at Sonsodo.
How about the waste treatment at the Solid Waste Management site? Why the waste treatment at Sonsodo find no mention at the meeting? Has the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee taken a call on the setting up bio-methanation plant at Sonsodo? Or, is the civic body content with the status quo wherein wet and dry waste generated in the commercial capital is transported to the Cacora Waste treatment plant for disposal?
These and other questions did the rounds in the corridors of the Margao Municipal building after the Council meeting since no question was raised at the meeting over the status and fate of waste management at the Sonsodo waste dumping site.
Sadly, as it has turned out, not a single councillor, both ruling and opposition, raised a question to find out from the Chairperson Damu Shirodkar and Chief Officer Melvyn Vaz, if any action plan is finalized on the waste treatment at Sonsodo. For, the A Class Civic body does not treat a single kilogram of wet waste at Sonsodo, with the entire quantum of daily waste, approximately 30-odd tones, generated in the commercial capital, is transported to the Cacora waste plant for treatment.
The eerie silence in the civic body on how to go about the garbage management is indeed surprising, more so when the High Court had directed the MMC to file an affidavit to the Court on the setting up of the waste management mechanism at Sonsodo.
If the Margao Municipality lays the blame on the Chief Minister-headed HPCC for the delay in taking a final call on the setting up the waste treatment plants, sources question whether the civic officials have done any follow up with the HPCC for early convening of a meeting to decide the future course of action.
When MMC Chairperson Damu Shirodkar was contacted by The Goan to shed light on the absence of any discussion at the Tuesday’s Council meeting on waste treatment at Sonsodo, he only said a solution will be found for the issue.
