MARGAO
Chicken meat stalls, hair-cutting saloons and tailoring shops have come under the lens of the Margao Municipal Council as there’s no let-up in the disposal of mixed waste at the city’s black spots.
As mixed waste continued to find its way to the black spots unabated, Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar has mulled hefty penalties against the unscrupulous elements disposing of waste at unauthorised places.
Saying that mixed waste such as chicken waste, hair and clothes are being dumped at the black spots, the MMC chairperson has warned that the civic body would carry out surprise checks of chicken stall, tailoring shops and hair-cutting saloons to find out the mechanism adopted by these units for disposal of their daily waste. Tender coconut selling vendors are also expected to be brought under the scanner of the civic body.
As the Municipal Chairperson along with Vice-Chairperson Deepali Sawal, ward councillors Johnny Crasto and Lyndon Pereira and Sanitary Inspectors Viraj Arabekar and Sanjay Sanguelkar hopped from one black spot to another in the Fatorda area of the city, the team across sites, which are cleared of the waste during day time, only to find the waste raising its ugly head during the night.
A visibly agitated Damu Shirodkar has warned of strict action against the miscreants involved in disposing of the waste at unauthorised places in the city. He told the sanitary inspectors to come down heavily against the miscreants invoking all powers under the Municipal Act and other laws in force to penalise the culprits.
In fact, the MMC chairperson has mulled fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 on the miscreants to act as a deterrent and stop waste disposal at the black spots.
Appreciating the initiative of the ward councillors, ex-chairperson Lyndon Pereira and Johnny Crasto for their efforts to get rid of the black spots in their respective wards, the chairperson assured to take up beautification of the black spots so that waste does not find its way at the spots in the future.
“These two councillors get the MMC workers to clean up the black spots and monitor the area. But, the waste again finds its way to the spots late night, defeating the initiative of the civic body and the councillors,” he said.
While mulling inspection of the chicken meat stalls, tailoring shops and hair-cutting saloons to find out the waste disposal mechanism, the chairperson further said that tender coconut selling vendors will now be asked to show the place of disposal of the coconut shells and other waste.
“We have handed over truck load of coconut shells and waste generated by the tender coconut vendors. We will now tell these vendors to show us the mode of disposal,” Shirodkar said.
Last week, the MMC team led by the chairperson had come across as many as 10 garbage black spots in the five wards of Margao. The ongoing exercise is part of an exercise to identify the black spots and to cap the menace.
