MARGAO
After the blame game, the Margao Municipal workers have finally got down on the Comba ring road to lift away tonnes of plastic waste dumped all along the stretch, and which threatens to flow into the river Sal during the rains.
Thanks to newly-appointed Chief Officer, Rohit Kadam, Margao Municipal workers were on the job to collect the plastic and other waste dumped by unscrupulous elements travelling on the isolated stretch of the ring road. With time running out as the monsoons have hit the State, the Chief Officer has issued clear instructions to the concerned sections to ensure that the waste along the Comba stretch is lifted away on priority.
In fact, the Chief Officer has been monitoring the work of lifting away the dry waste dumped all along the ring road stretch, starting from the Comba subway to the old market. “Since the rains are fast approaching, I will ensure that the workers clear the ring road stretch of the plastic waste as fast as they can,” Kadam told The Goan.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the Municipal body why the work of lifting the plastic, believed to be over 100 hundred tonnes, was not lifted over the last two months when the media had been repeatedly highlighting the issue, as the waste threatened to flow into the adjoining river Sal.
Questions have also been raised as to why the MLAs of Margao and Fatorda, Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardesai respectively, whose Margao Civic Alliance (MCA) is ruling the Margao Municipality did not get the officials and workers to clear the waste. The silence of the powers that be and the lethargy and apathy of the civic officials over the last two months in clearing the waste from the ring road assumes significance since the door-to-door waste collectors are mandated in their contracts not just to clear the black spots, but segregate the waste.
In fact, it’s been over a month now since the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had refused to clear the waste from the Comba ring road on the plea that waste management falls in the domain of the local civic body.
