MARGAO
As the Margao Municipal Council braces up to have its first meeting under the leadership of new Chairperson Damu Shirodkar on Monday, City Fathers and citizens may realise that many a burning issue plaguing the commercial capital, including garbage and Sonsodo, all discussed and deliberated at the first meeting of the incumbent council elected in 2021, are still hanging fire.
Blame it on red tape, lack of political will or simply apathy and indifference to resolve the issues, some of the problems discussed at the council meeting almost 17 months ago have come back to the council for discussion and decision.
The July 9, 2021, meeting headed by then chairperson Lyndon Pereira, who assumed office after the 2021 civic polls, adopted a host of resolutions aimed at streamlining waste management and discussed issues related to stray dogs, the three BS4 compliant trucks et al.
Around 17 months later, a solution seemed to have eluded the core issue of Sonsodo waste management to date, even as the civic body is grappling with the tendering of the door-to-door waste collection job since 2019.
Door-to-door waste collection agencies
The July 9, 2021 meeting had given a three-month extension to the two agencies engaged in collecting waste door-to-door, with a condition the civic body floats an e-tender to comply with the mandatory codal formalities.
The decision to float an e-tender was taken primarily because the agreement between the council and the two agencies had expired in 2019 and the agencies were continuing the work on extensions. The issue had then figured at the council meeting at least on two occasions when the tendering process had hit a block and with the council granting further extensions to the agencies.
Monday’s meeting will again discuss the issue to give extensions for the two agencies, which are presently being paid Rs 30 lakh every month for the door-to-door waste collection. Reason? The extension to the two agencies had lapsed on October 31 and the agencies have been continuing with the work sans an official extension.
In the meantime, the e-tender floated by the council on April 8, 2022, has hit a block after the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) has not given the green signal to the civic body to accept the bids.
Sonsodo waste management
The new council headed by Chairperson Shirodkar has listed a host of issues on the meeting agenda to put Sonsodo waste management in place as part of fresh measures to streamline the existing system.
Decisions and resolutions on waste management adopted at the July 9, 2021 meeting chaired by then-chairperson Lyndon Pereira, however, are yet to fall into place to date. Crucial decisions, including a resolution to float an Expression of Interest to rope in a contractor to treat the daily waste dumped at Sonsodo, have remained on paper.
That’s not all. Discussions and decisions on the construction of the road at Sonsodo have remained on paper, with the administration now claiming the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) will execute the project along with the work to refurbish the Sonsodo shed.
When the council at its July 9, 2021 meeting discussed the issue of carting out the piled-up waste inside the shed, the issue of non-payment of Rs 85 lakh to the GWMC-appointed contractor by the civic body had come to the fore. The payment was later made, but the civic body is facing an uphill task to cart out the waste piled up inside the shed over the last year and a half for want of waste treatment.
Stranded BS4-compliant trucks back on agenda
MARGAO:
The July 9, 2021 council witnessed an uproar over the controversy surrounding the purchase of the three BS4 trucks costing around Rs 37 lakh and the delay in registering the same with the transport department before the BS6 regime came into force in 2020.
At that meeting, the City Fathers in one voice took on the municipal administration for the sheer negligence and delay in registering the trucks before the BS6 regime came into force as a result of which the vehicles are now stranded in the municipal garage for want of registration.
Around 17 months later, the issue is back on the agenda of the council meeting scheduled on Monday. It’s not that the issue was not discussed again at the meeting during the last 17 months, but the issue remains unresolved for want of the council's nod to approach the Supreme Court with a plea seeking permission to register the vehicles with the transport department.
While the City Fathers insisted on action against the erring officials for the delay, the officials in turn have made a case for approaching the Supreme Court, contending that the council can take the gamble by spending Rs 2-4 lakh to save Rs 37 lakh.
All eyes on new council to tackle stray dogs issue
MARGAO:
The issue of stray dogs had come up for discussion at the first meeting of the incumbent council on July 9, 2021, when the City Fathers took stock of the situation, including the delay in the payments to the city-based NGO handling the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.
What’s significant to note is that the July 9, 2021 meeting chaired by then Chairperson Lyndon Pereira did not discuss the fate of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked by the council with a city-based NGO, which had expired on December 31, 2020.
It will be two years on December 31, 2022, since the MoU between the MMC and the NGO lapsed, but no new MoU has yet been signed by the civic body to date. While the outgoing council was found wanting in renewing the MoU or inviting fresh bids to rope in the agencies to handle the ABC programme, all eyes are now focused on the new council over how it goes about addressing the burning issue.
