MARGAO
After the uproar and bitter acrimony that marked Margao Municipal Council’s decision to go in for the seven bio-methanation garbage treatment plants, all guns seem to have fallen silent on the controversial project mooted at a whopping cost of Rs 43-odd crore.
It’s exactly a fortnight when the elected Margao Municipal Council had confirmed the decision in support of the seven bio-methanation plants on November 3. Following the change of guard, wherein the elected body stands replaced by a government-appointed Administrator, the bio-methanation plants’ project seem to have been put on the backburner.
Nothing has been heard in the corridors of the Margao municipality on the bio-methanation project, which just a fortnight ago was the subject of intense debate over its high cost and the ruling MMC’s resolved to push the project at the council meeting.
The Goan understands that the file pertaining to the bio-methanation project has not yet been forwarded to the Director of Municipal Administration to date. MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes must have waited for the Administrator Prasanna Acharya to take charge of the civic body before taking a call on whether to forward the proposal to the Director of Municipal Administration for administrative approval.
It’s now three days since Acharya had assumed office and has since then been a regular visitor to the municipality to ensure that no file or proposal is held up in the civic body because of his absence.
However, if sources are to be believed, there seems to be no sense of urgency in the corridors of the civic body to take any decision on the proposal or forward the file to the DMA’s office for administrative approval.
Leave alone any decision to forward the proposal to the DMA’s office, The Goan understands that the issue has not even been discussed in detail by the Administrator and the Chief Officer so far, indicating that the officials are in no hurry to take a call on the bio-methanation project.
On the other hand, questions are being raised in the corridors of the civic body whether the government-appointed officers will go ahead with the three bio-methanation plants, each unit costing Rs 2.39 crore, for which the Director of Municipal Administration, Dr Tariq Thomas, had given approval a couple of months ago.
It may be recalled that even though the DMA’s office had given approval for the plants as per the proposal of the Margao municipality, the civic body later opted for the seven bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo at a whopping cost of Rs 43-odd crore after the visit of Waste Management Minister, Michael Lobo at Sonsodo along with MLAs Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardesai.
The bio-methanation project costing Rs 43-odd crore had run into rough weather over the huge cost, as it became clear that each of the plants will cost the civic body Rs 4.81 crore. Many eyebrows were raised in the corridors of the civic body given that each of three bio-methanation plants approved earlier was costing just Rs 2.39 crore.
