MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council has finally replied to the preliminary notice of termination served by Sociedade de Fomento Industrial (SFI) Ltd on the Sonsodo imbroglio, but had nothing concrete to offer on waste management, with the Chief Officer only promising to place the notice before the upcoming meeting of the Council for discussion and for appropriate decision on the issues raised by SFI.
The Chief Officer, however, took the opportunity to draw attention of SFI to the door-to-door waste segregation exercise initiated by the civic body in all the municipal wards and the steps taken to ensure that only segregated bio-degradable waste reaches the Sonsodo facility.
The reply was dispatched to SFI exactly a month after the civic body had received the preliminary notice of termination under clause 10.2.2 of the Concession Agreement signed by MMC and SFI for the setting up of the waste treatment plant at Sonsodo.
While the reply was silent on the points raised in the notice, especially on the events of default pointed out by SFI, the Chief Officer did acknowledge that the notice raises serious issues which may have far-reaching consequences on municipal solid waste management within the municipal area and environment, health and sanitation.
“As the municipality acts through its elected body and considering the seriousness of the issues raised, it has been decided to place the notice before the council in its upcoming meeting for discussion and for appropriate decision on various issues brought out by you,” Chief Officer Siddivinayak Naik mentioned in his reply. He, however, said that door-to-door segregation of waste is in progress in all the wards of the council and steps have been taken to see that only segregated bio-degradable waste reaches the Sonsodo facility. “Though some difficulties are observed in certain wards in collection of segregated waste, all efforts are made to see that the segregation at source is not affected or hampered,” the Chief Officer said, while promising to revert back to SFI once the council meets and discusses the issues raised by the company.
“Considering the long-standing relationship and the spirit of the Concession Agreement, I hope that the issues raised by you in the notice will be amicably resolved”, the Chief Officer added.
On January 18 last, the SFI had served the preliminary termination notice on the Margao Municipal Council to submit an action plan indicating the steps to be taken by the civic body to rectify the events of default. The events of default include the failure of the MMC to make the payments to SFI amounting to over Rs 11.45 crore. The SFI had further claimed that the civic body is persisting in bringing excluded waste to the project and has failed to cart away such waste.
