Thursday 28 Mar 2024

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle drive now pile of headache for MMC

Council struggles to dispose waste for want of facility

THE GOAN NETWORK | JUNE 07, 2023, 12:25 AM IST
Reduce, Reuse & Recycle drive now pile of headache for MMC

MARGAO

Margao Municipal Council’s appeal to citizens to hand over used plastic items, old books, used plastic, besides footwear, etc as part of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle drive under Meri Life, Mera Swachh Shehar has thrown up a question of sorts for the civic body to handle – how to dispose of the items stored on the ground floor of the Municipal building.

For, while the Municipal officials maintained that the waste received from the citizens will be disposed of by the agencies engaged by the Director of Municipal Administration, representatives of the agencies have made it amply clear that it’s the responsibility of the local civic body to establish the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (RRR) facility in the Municipal jurisdiction.

The RRR campaign was kicked off on May 20 and ended on June 4 on the eve of the World Environment Day, but the waste handed over to the civic body by citizens continues to remain stored at the building entrance, with the waste turning the ground floor into an eyesore and restricting the movement of citizens in the civic building.

Even as questions are being raised when would the civic body dispose of the waste handed over by citizens, civic officials conceded that the MMC has not established the RRR facility till date.

Shadow Council for Margao has deplored the miserable failure of the MMC’s much hyped drive which was tagged to promote the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (RRR) concept. “The programme launched with much funfair ended up being a cropper. Even those few people who delivered the unused goods to the MMC are wondering as to what will happen to the goods collected at the Municipal building,” SCM convenor Savio Coutinho told the media.

Coutinho lamented that the sight right at the entrance of the Council building appears like one of the black spots seen all over the city. “The least that was expected from the Council was to at least separate the different types of goods handed over by citizens, so that it could be decided which of the items could be reused and which could be recycled, he further said.

He said the Council was informed that the MMC has to set up an RRR centre in each ward of Margao as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which centres are yet to be set up. “The purpose for setting up of RRR centres was to facilitate the general public to deposit their used plastic items, old books, used clothes footwear, etc, which would be further refurbished reused and recycled, as stated in the circular dated 16th May, issued by the GSUDA,” he added.

He further added: “When the SCM inquired the reasons for the collected items lying at the entrance of the MMC building even after the drive ended on 4th June, we were informed that nobody came to pick up the collected items. When it was brought to the notice that the Council needs to set up RRR centres for this purpose, the concerned officials expressed ignorance about the same.”

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