MARGAO
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s promise made on the floor of the House during the recently-concluded Assembly session to convene a meeting of the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) by February 10 to resolve the Sonsodo imbroglio has gone abegging.
In another development, the government is believed to have told the Margao Municipal Council to take a call at its level on the question of opening the financial bids in respect of the two bio-methanation plants tendered by the civic body.
Neither did the HPCC meet during the last 10 days nor officials of the Margao Municipal Council have any idea when the Chief Minister will call for the meeting to deliberate and discuss the Sonsodo mess.
And, with the Margao Municipal officials busy preoccupied with the organization of the Carnival float parade in the city on February 14, Sonsodo may be on the back burner till the culmination of the carnival festivities in the city.
Hopes of the early convening of the HPCC meeting to deliberate and discuss the contentious issue of setting up the bio-methanation plants was raised during the Assembly Session when the Chief Minister announced on the floor of the House to call a meeting by February 10 to sort out all the issues affecting the garbage management in the city.
The Chief Minister’s assurance had come after the Opposition criticized the government for lack of coordination between the Urban Development Ministry and the Waste management Ministry on the question of setting up the bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo.
While the Urban Development had accorded approval to the MMC to set up two bio-methanation plants in Margao, the Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo had mulled as many as seven bio-methanation plants to offer a comprehensive solution to the Sonsodo waste problem.
Matters had come to a head between the two departments after the Director of Municipal Administration was not quick in according approval to the preliminary estimates prepared by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) prompting Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo to go the media and announce that the Margao Municipal Council will go for the seven bio-methanation plants after the Municipal polls.
