the goan I network
MARGAO
With the Margao Municipal Council struggling to keep the city-garbage free, the civic body has finally decided to rope in a labour contractor to supply around 90 workers as a stop gap arrangement till the municipality floats a fresh tender to outsource door-to-door waste collection.
The MMC’s decision comes as garbage remained uncollected from many parts of the city, especially from the Margao area, after the contractor quit the job last week. The MMC favoured the labour contractor after MMC Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai chaired a meeting with officials and City Fathers, many of whom complained that waste has piled up at the black spots for want of effective door-to-door waste collection.
Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik was huddled with his officials late Monday evening to clear the proposal to rope in the labour contractor to supply 90 workers at the rate of Rs 525 per worker per day, inclusive of the GST.
Sources in the know informed that the manpower constraints had come in the way of lifting of garbage from the black spots as well as door-to-door in the last four days. Door-to-door collection was also hit hard in some of the areas of Margao with no workers around to carry out the job, leaving the citizens with no option than to dump their waste at the black spots. Citizens were also complaining of the failure of the civic body to collect the waste from their door steps when they are being charged garbage tax by the municipality.
The problem has been further aggravated by the fact that the High Court has barred open dumping of waste at the Sonsodo site. In the past, the MMC used to lift the mixed waste from the black spots and dump the same on the existing dump yard at Sonsodo. Now, with open waste dumping a thing of the past and Fomento insisting on accepting only segregated waste, the MMC has no option than to segregate the waste from the households and the
black spots before transporting the same to the waste treatment plant.
Babita orders physical count of municipal workers, termination of 6 contract drivers
MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai on Monday ordered the administration to go for a physical count of the municipal workers, demanding to know how the civic body could not keep the city clean when it employs a huge army of workers.
The MMC chairperson also directed the administration to terminate the services of the six municipal contract drivers, who had refused to come for work on Sundays. The chairperson further issued directions to the Chief Officer to ensure that all the municipal drivers put in the mandatory eight hours of duty every day.
Taking stock of the situation with the City Fathers, municipal engineers and site supervisors, the MMC chairperson said the MMC should not have faced any major manpower constraint when the records indicate that the civic body is employing around 90 workers for garbage collection and 50 workers on the municipal trucks. “Something seemed to have gone wrong somewhere. If the number of workers employed and those on the field is not tallying, there’s something wrong in the system,” Babita said, while saying that she has asked the administration to go in for a physical count of the number of workers employed by the civic body.
The MMC chairperson further directed the municipal engineers to lend a helping hand to the administration battling against garbage. “I have found that the engineers working in the civic body does not shoulder any responsibility in tackling garbage. Hence, they have now been told to prepare a weekly audit on the garbage situation in the wards,” she said.
Saying that the Chief Officer has been told to float a fresh tender calling for the appointment of six drivers, the MMC chairperson said those who do not work on Sundays have no place in a public utility agency such as a municipality.
Similarly, she pointed out that the regular municipal drivers are expected to put in the mandatory eight hours of work, saying the civic body will not compromise on the timings of the drivers.
