MARGAO
Margao Municipal Council’s “negligence” to treat the daily waste generated in the commercial capital over the last 15 months will further bleed the civic body in terms of huge monetary costs.
And, the civic body may have to again fall back on the 14th or 15th Finance Commission grants to get rid of the piled-up waste stacked inside the Sonsodo waste treatment, which had resulted in the collapse of the portion of the plant wall during the weekend.
Otherwise, consider this. If the payment amounting to Rs 84 lakh to a contractor to cart out and remediate the piled up waste from the Sonsodo waste treatment plant was not enough, the municipal body is again bracing up for a similar exercise “ this time to spend a whopping Rs 2.70 crore to rid the Sonsodo treatment plant shed of the waste, which by MMC’s admission and estimates is pegged around 15,000 tons.
Once beaten, twice shy, so goes the saying. But, welcome to the Margao Municipal Council, where the civic body is bracing up for the second time in as many years to cart out and remediate the piled up waste inside the waste treatment plant.
This brings to the fore the core question of why was the MMC lacking in putting in place a mechanism to treat the daily waste generated in the city. Was there a lack of will or simply lethargy and apathy that simply delayed the setting up of a treatment mechanism to treat the daily waste?
A Municipal official has sought to blame the higher government officials for the delay in carting away the piled up waste lying inside the plant over the question of codal formalities.
"We had suggested to the government to rope in the same agency engaged by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) to handle the work of carting out the piled up waste, remediate the same and transport the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) to the cement factories in Karnataka”, the official recalled.
He added. “Only a lone bidder had participated in the Expression of Interest (EOI) floated by the MMC to cart out the piled waste, who had also quoted the rate above the rate fixed by the GWMC”.
With garbage stacked inside the waste treatment plant, beyond the plant capacity, resulting in the collapse of the portion of the wall, the MMC has now proposed to the GWMC to rope in the contractor on the job to remediate the Sonsodo legacy dump to handle the piled-up waste.
“The proposal to rope in the GWMC-appointed contractor to cart out the piled waste and remediate the same will be placed before the special MMC meeting later this week. Rough estimates show that it will cost a whopping Rs 2.70 crore, if not more, to undertake the job of emptying the entire plant shed admeasuring 5,000 square metres”, the official added.
