the goan I network
PANAJI
With the garbage problem in the capital city looming large, discussions over the location of a new waste treatment plant (WTP) for Panaji’s garbage dominated the entirety of the special Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) meeting held on Friday.
While the 17 member ruling panel of the CCP, which owes allegiance to Panaji MLA Atanasio Monserrate, were rooting for a WTP next to the Heera Petrol Pump, the 13 member BJP panel were rooting for a bio-digester in Tonca, next to the existing Sewage Treatment Plant (STP).
Several members of the ruling panel also insisted that the Saligao Waste Treatment Plant ought to continue accepting Panaji’s one truck of wet waste per day. The Saligao Plant is set to stop accepting Panaji’s waste in another seven days, and the CCP is hard-pressed for time to find another option.
Despite this, the ruling panel, led by the mayor Uday Madkaikar argued tooth and nail against the 10 tons per day Rs 2.5 crore bio-digester at Tonca. The said bio-digester has already been given an NOC by the PWD Minister, and is set to be sponsored by the casinos, as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR).
However, on July 4, Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate (in whose constituency the bio-digester is going to come under), wrote a strongly-worded letter to the PWD Minister objecting to the bio-digester in her constituency, and asking for a withdrawal of the NOC.
At the special CCP meeting on Friday, the ruling panel, sang the same tune as Monserrate saying that residents of Tonca had already been objecting to the existing STP due to hygiene and parking problems.
Moreover, the ruling panel said that they were against the casinos sponsoring the bio-digester as they themselves were fighting to remove the casinos from the Mandovi completely.
The mayor told presspersons, “One side we’re objecting to casinos being here in the first place, and want them removed. On the other side, how can we take their money for the bio-digester?” Madkaikar said that it looked strongly as though the administration was bending to the will of the casinos.
Ruling corporator Rahul Lotlikar questioned what was the problem with the Saligao plant accepting Panaji’s waste. “If we can accept sewage from the coastal belt in North Goa, why can’t they accept our garbage? They need to come to a compromise,” he said.
BJP corporator Menino D’Cruz told the media that the BJP corporators were going to inform the people of Panaji that they had no role to play in saying no to a bio-digester in the city. “Shifting the casinos out of Panaji is a different issue from the bio-digester. We’re going to tell the people that Panaji is going to become a garbage dump in another 15-20 days, so that people don’t blame us later. This is their MLA’s and the ruling panel’s decision,” said a visibly angered D’Cruz.
Meanwhile the CCP commissioner didn’t even wait for the end of the meeting, storming out of the hall before the national anthem was played.
