MARGAO
Land acquired by the government for a hockey ground near the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao is now converted into a garbage dump.
Mixed waste collected by the Margao Municipal Council from the city, including garden waste, is now finding its way onto the hockey ground for want of alternate space to dispose of the waste.
Take note, the acquired land in question was filled up to house a makeshift bus stand when the KTC bus stand was taken over by the government to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat Viksit rally held in the city earlier this year.
In fact, if officials are to be believed, it had cost the PWD lakhs of rupees to do the land filling at the acquired land for the hockey ground before it was made ready to host the makeshift bus stand.
Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar admitted that mixed waste, including garden waste and coconut trees, is being dumped at the government acquired land for want of space to dispose of such waste. “Citizens have been stacking their garden waste on the roads, expecting the Margao Municipality to collect and disposing of the waste. Besides, the MMC has been clearing up drains and debris from all the 25 Municipal wards. But, there’s no space available to dispose of such waste. The wet and plastic waste collected by the civic body goes to Sonsodo for treatment”, Shirodkar said.
The civic chief informed that he has told the Municipal engineer to rope in heavy earth moving machinery to clear the waste from the government acquired land.
The Margao Municipality has been disposing of the mixed waste, including garden waste on the GSUDA acquired land near the KTC bus stand over the years. Waste dumping at the site, however, has been stopped following protests by the local residents of Madel and Fatorda and after the matter was brought to the notice of the High Court in a Public Interest petition.
