the goan I network
MARGAO
Why are households reluctant to take sewerage connections when the government has pumped in a whopping Rs 100 crore to replace the north main sewerage line passing through Fatorda and when the sewage connections are provided to the local residents at a subsidized rate?
That’s not all. This question assumes significance and comes in the backdrop of the commissioning of two state-of-the-art sewerage plants at Sirvodem a year ago which are operating below its capacity for want of sewage.
If this question had come to stare Margao MLA Digambar Kamat a couple of months ago with Madgavkars hesitant to take the sewerage connections, Fatorda MLA and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai is also grappling with a similar question “ why Fatordekars are dragging their feet to take the sewage connections when these are provided at a subsidized rate?
While Digambar Kamat had suggested a carrot and stick policy to get the Margao households opt for the sewage connections, even going to the extent of unveiling a plan to make door-to-door visits and persuade the residents to obtain the connections, the TCP Minister has called for disconnection of the power and water supplies to all households which are found discharging their sewage into the drains.
“Why should the government spend a whopping Rs 100 crore to get the main sewerage line replaced if people do not take the connections. I think the health department, Margao municipality and PWD, sewerage, should sit together and find out a solution to the issue, including disconnection of power and water supplies to households which violate the law,” Sardesai warned.
He further said that residents of Fatorda should not have any complaints to make when he had got the government to offer subsidized sewage connections to the local residents in view of the large percentage of ST population inhabiting the constituency. “As per the subsidy scheme, a flat owner is only required to pay Rs 3,000 and a bungalow Rs 5,000 to get a sewage connection when the normal cost works out to over Rs 30,000. If people still do not want to opt for the subsidized scheme, then it is high time the government invokes the law to force the people go for the sewage connections,” he asserted.
