MARGAO
Expressing his concern that underground sewerage lines worth crores of rupees is lying idle across the State, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral said a modern state like Goa has only around 17-18 per cent sewerage connections when the national average is pegged around 35 per cent.
In fact, the PWD Minister has said he feels ashamed to be part of a system wherein crores of rupees of taxpayer’s money has gone into the laying of the underground sewerage network across the State and the infrastructure is lying idle.
Speaking after launching Bandicoot “ a robot launched by Genrobotics to eliminate manual scavenging in the State through a CSR by ONGC Foundation at the sewerage treatment plant, Sirvodem on Thursday, Cabral made a fervent plea to the elected representatives, including the MLAs, councillors to help dispel apprehensions of the citizens on the location of STPs and issues connected to sewage.
“Nobody wants sewage near their house or in the vicinity. There are bigger hassles over the location of STPs and even bigger issues over the pumping stations. I would like to tell the citizens that technology has changed now and the advancement in technology has brought about solutions to issues of the past,” he added.
Cabral said he has taken up the responsibility to ensure that Goa achieves the target of 50 per cent sewerage connections on top priority and then move forward to achieve the 70 per cent target.
“When crores of rupees of taxpayer’s money is spent to lay the underground line and install STPs, we need to achieve 50 per cent of sewage connections on priority,” he added.
Meanwhile, complimenting Genrobotics for launching Bandicoot robot to clean up sewage manholes, Cabral said the government will not mind procuring a couple of Bandicoots after training the officials and staff in handling the robot.
“I am happy that Goa is the 15th State in India where Genrobotics has launched the robot through CSR by ONGC Foundation. The government will go in for robots once the expertise is passed on to the staff and officials,” he added.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said the robot will do away with manual cleaning of the manholes while exuding confidence that the PWD Minister will go in for the robots to help clean up clogged manholes.
