MARGAO
The Shadow Council for Margao has strongly criticized the Goa State Pollution Control Board, and termed it as the "pollution creating board", on account of its failure to conduct tests on the waste samples submitted to the Board for testing on November 24, 2022.
SCM wondered whether the High Court has directed the Margao Municipal Council and Goa Waste Management Corporation to solve the Sonsodo Legacy waste issue or whether they are empowered to create another one.
SCM convenor Savio Coutinho informed that the waste management corporation had been dumping screened mixed garbage near the District Court in Margao, to which the citizens and the Shadow Council for Margao had objected. “The waste which was tagged as "Compost" and "Inert" was found to contain all sorts of waste right from huge plastic bags, animal carcasses, syringes etc and spread foul odour right upto a one km radius,” he said.
He added: “When the protests held by citizens were cold-shouldered by the MMC and GWMC, we collected three samples from the dumping site and handed them over to the Goa State Pollution Control Board on Nov 24, 2022, for testing. And since the GSPCB failed to give us details of the test reports conducted on the samples, we preferred to obtain the reports via an RTI application. To our utter shock, we received today the reply from the GSPCB, which states that no analysis was conducted on the samples handed over to them, and hence no reports were available.”
He said the SCM have no choice but to demand a change in the name of GPSCB as it will be most appropriate to call it the "Pollution Creating Board. “It is beyond any doubt that the GSPCB didn't conduct any analysis on the samples as the reports would have been alarming, Coutinho charged, saying there is also a possibility that the tests were conducted, and the reports are kept under wrap, to conceal facts.
Coutinho demanded that Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral check upon his department and its functioning if his government is truly concerned about the environment, Ecology and the safety of the citizens of Margao.
