the goan I network
MARGAO
After making a submission to the district Court at the last date of hearing on September 30, the Margao Municipal Council has pushed the ball in the government’s court as the Chief Officer has dashed off a letter to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant seeking his intervention by convening the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) to resolve the Sonsodo imbroglio.
In another development, Municipal Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai is reported to have made a plea to the BJP-backed councilors in the civic body to take up the Sonsodo issue and the urgent need to convene the HPCC when the city fathers call on the CM in a day or two.
Prabhudesai discussed the Sonsodo matter with Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik on Thursday, three days after the council had made a submission before the district Court that the Chief officer will write a letter to the CM seeking the government’s intervention in the matter.
Prabhudesai informed that the Chief Officer has made a letter to the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) on the matter the very next day, with a plea to convene a meeting of the HPCC headed by the CM on Sonsodo.
“We only hope the CM calls the HPCC meeting at the earliest to find a solution to the imbroglio. We also hope the government takes the MMC councilors into confidence on the matter,” she added.
The Margao Municipal Council had got a two-month breather from the district Court on the Sonsodo mess after the council’s counsel Adv S Padiyar sought time from the Court to resolve the issue.
In fact, Adv Padiyar had submitted to the court that the MMC Chief Officer would immediately write a letter to the government, formally seeking the government’s intervention in the matter.
MMC literally finds itself in a tight spot over Sonsodo with the HC barring the civic body from carrying out open dumping of the daily waste at the existing waste dump, leaving the Municipality with no option than to segregate the waste and transport the same to the Fomento waste treatment plant.
With 70 black spots dotting the the length and breadth of the city, and with no full proof mechanism in place for waste segregation, the MMC has been literally struggling to segregate the waste at the black spots. It’s an open secret that before the High Court order barring the civic body from opening waste dumping at Sonsodo had come into force, the MMC was transporting the unsegregated waste from the black spots and dumping the same at the existing waste dump.
