MARGAO
The Rs 7.5 crore gasification plant set up at Sonsodo by the Margao Municipal Council has come under the lens of citizens.
Questions have been raised over the functioning of the 10-tonne plant inaugurated on April 23, the generation of fly ash and its use for brick-making, etc.
In fact, Margao Block Congress convenor Savio Coutinho has charged that the gasification plant inaugurated at Sonsodo by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is running below capacity.
Explaining the details of the functioning of the much-hyped gasification plant, Coutinho said that the plant, which is supposed to dispose of 10 tonnes of dry inorganic waste, was running below capacity, and this can be proved by the quantity of residual fly ash accumulated in the shed.
He further stated that the nature of the residual fly ash further exposes that all is not well with the gasification plant's functioning. Displaying a large quantity of uncharred plastic waste in the fly ash, Coutinho wondered whether the plant was running at the designed temperature.
“Going by 10 tonnes of waste disposed of per day, at the rate of 0.5 per cent residual fly ash, 500 kg of fly ash should have been generated per day; and for the 78 days since commissioning of the plant, there should have been fly ash equivalent to around 55,000 litres by volume. The total fly ash, including the partially charred material, is far below this quantity,” he said.
Coutinho further pointed to the huge quantity of waste lying dumped on the conveyor belts that are supposed to feed coconut husk into the plant, and said that the cobwebs formed throughout these conveyor belts very clearly suggest that the belts have not been in use for months.
Coutinho called upon the Goa State Pollution Control Board and the Goa Waste Management Corporation to visit the plant and ascertain whether it is functioning effectively. “We demand accountability from the government,” Coutinho said, while warning the Margao Municipal Council that he would seek legal remedy over the criminal wastage of public funds.
