MMC trucks filled with garbage at the Old market garage.
MARGAO
Just imagine a situation where all the garbage-laden trucks are found parked in a garage when it ought to have been on the move to dispose of the waste at the garbage treatment plant.
Indeed, what was feared all along has come true. On Monday, a fleet of Margao Municipal trucks laden with garbage was seen parked in the municipal garage for want of disposal facility at the Sonsodo waste treatment plant. Reason: The treatment plant is almost overflowing with waste and the mechanical grab used to churn and move the trash is out of order. Left with no option, the daily waste collected daily was being dumped all along the road leading to the plant at Sonsodo.
When the trucks arrived at the plant on Monday morning, they found the road not conducive for vehicle movement as it was choked with garbage forcing the five garbage-filled vehicles to return back, only to be parked throughout the day at the municipal garage.
Stray cattle feasting on the garbage piled up near the SGPDA market.
The result was there for all to see and may throw up questions for the municipal administrators. Since the garbage collected from the city during the first trip was all lying piled in the trucks, these vehicles could not go out for the second trip to collect garbage from the city.
That’s not all. Since the garbage-laden trucks were all parked in the garage, collection of market waste and waste from the hotels and eateries could not be lifted in the evening session.
Till 6 pm, there was no word from the municipality on how it plans to handle the emerging situation as failure to clear the road to the Sonsodo treatment plant for the trucks to dispose of the waste would only mean that the garbage would start rotting and stinking across the city.
A garbage worker informed that even if the municipal administration manages to clear the Sonsodo road of the waste, it would take the entire day on Tuesday to lift the waste generated in the city in the last two days.
Trash bins overflow at Borda as trucks couldn’t make it to the Sonsodo treatment plant due to choking of the road with garbage.
When asked to shed light on the emerging situation, a civic official said the mechanical grab has not been working for the last several days, resulting in piling of up garbage inside the plant. “Since the trucks could not reach the plant, they have been unloading the waste along the road, resulting in a situation where trucks could no longer reach the plant”, he added.
When ‘The Goan’ contacted Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes about the garbage situation at Sonsodo, he said he is attending a meeting in Panaji. He, however, said a solution would be worked out to ensure that the municipal garbage trucks somehow manage to dispose of the collected waste in the treatment plant on Tuesday.
“We have decided to put JCB machinery at Sonsodo to push the waste from the plant. By evening, we should complete the job. This will make way for the trucks to go towards the plant”, he said.
MARGAO: Even as the Margao Municipal Council has been found wanting in putting the system in place at Sonsodo, it has come to light that the 11 workers who were taken on contract to work at the waste treatment plant have not been paid wages for over two months now.
Every time any senior MMC official or engineer makes their presence felt at the Sosondo site, they are faced with a volley of questions from these beleaguered workers over the delay in clearing their wages.
This is not the first time that the MMC has been found wanting in clearing the wages of these workers, who were earlier working for Fomento and retained by the MMC after the plant was handed over to the civic body for operation.
When ‘The Goan’ called up officials of the MMC sanitation section to shed light over the delay in the payments of wages to these 11 workers, it was pointed out that the file pertaining to wages was cleared and forwarded to other sections.
Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, when contacted, said he would look into the matter, adding that whatever that is due will be cleared to the workers as per the norms.
