The turnaround at the Sonsodo waste management site.
MARGAO
Around five years after the Citizens for Sonsodo knocked the doors of the High Court over the deteriorating situation at Sonsodo, the High Court has finally disposed of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by the NGO after the government submitted a report on the turn around at the Sonsodo, including carting away of the piled up waste from the Sonsodo waste management shed.
Advocate General D Pangam informed that the High Court has disposed of the 2019 Public Interest Litigation filed by the NGO on Tuesday after the Court expressed its satisfaction over the work carried o out at Sonsodo by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) and the Margao Municipal Council.
He further said the High Court has left it to the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) to take a decision on the further progress to be carried out at Sonsodo.
As far as the construction of the retaining wall is concerned, the High Court has given time till June to the Margao Municipal Council for completion of the work. “With today’s order, the High Court has disposed of the PIL. There is no more issue on Sonsodo in the High Court”, the Advocate General said.
The Citizens for Sonsodo through its Secretary Roque Mascarenhas had knocked the doors of the High Court over the slow pace of the remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump undertaken by the Goa Waste Management Corporation.
Initially, the Sonsodo legacy dump had come under the High Court scanner after the GWMC appointed a contactor to clear and remediate the decades old dump.
It was by chance that the High Court during one of the hearings took up the matter of the wet waste disposal mechanism by the Margao Municipal only to find glaring disparities.
Trouble began for the Margao Municipal Council after Justice Mahesh Sonak of the High Court issued a notice to the MMC to submit an Action plan to put Sonsodo in order. As expected, the MMC filed a detailed Action plan, setting for itself a time frame to complete each of the works at Sonsodo.
The MMC, however, had to face the ire of the High Court when the Civic body approached the Court with a plea seeking further time to implement the road map. In fact, taking serious cognizance of the MMC’s failure to adhere to the time-frame, the High Court around mid-July 2023 directed the South Goa district Collector, Asvin Chandru, IAS to visit the Sonsodo site and file a report within 24 hours, thus setting in motion the process for the implementation of the time-frame of the various garbage related works at Sonsodo.
