MARGAO
Nothing comes for free from the government, so goes the saying. None other than the Margao Municipal Council has realised this bitter truth when the civic body received a bill raised by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) towards the treatment of Sonsodo waste at the Saligao waste treatment plant.
That’s not all. The Margao Municipal Council has received another bill amounting to a whopping Rs 90-odd lakhs from the GWMC towards the transportation of Sonsodo waste to the Cacora waste management plant.
The Rs one-odd crore bill raised by the GWMC for the treatment of Sonsodo waste at the Saligao waste treatment plant in 2023 has left Margao municipal officials keeping their fingers crossed. For, after the GWMC raised the bill for the waste treated at the Saligao waste treatment plant, MMC officials now seem to be bracing themselves to receive a “love letter” from the GWMC for the treatment of wet and dry waste at the Cacora waste treatment plant over the last year.
Going by the rough calculations done by a senior municipal council official, after taking into account the charges levied by the corporation for waste treatment, sources say the MMC will be required to pay over Rs three crore to the GWMC for the treatment of waste at the Cacora waste treatment plant.
Presently, the Margao Municipal Council is sending around 30 tonnes of wet waste to the Cacora plant every day on average. “After the GWMC raised the bill of Rs one-odd crore for the treatment of Sonsodo waste at the Saligao plant in 2023, it is now apparent that it is just a matter of time before the corporation raises a similar bill for the treatment of waste at the Cacora waste treatment plant,” informed a senior MMC officer.
Will bill bomb spur MMC into action?
Will the bill raised by the GWMC towards the treatment of Sonsodo waste at the Saligao plant in 2023 come as an eye-opener and spur the Margao city fathers, municipal babus, and the powers that be controlling the civic body to set up its own waste treatment plant at Sonsodo?
For, it is now crystal clear that waste treated by the GWMC presently at the Cacora plant is not likely to come free of cost, given that the corporation has raised a bill for the waste treated at the Saligao plant. Against this backdrop, the Margao Municipal Council will have to answer a contentious question ” is it prudent to spend lakhs, if not crores of rupees, on transportation of waste and to get the waste treated at the Cacora waste treatment plant?
Consider this: The Margao civic body is presently spending Rs 12 lakh on average every month to the Goa Waste Management Corporation towards the transportation of Sonsodo waste to the Cacora plant. According to MMC officials, the MMC has received a fresh bill from the GWMC amounting to over Rs 90-odd lakhs towards the cost of transportation of the Sonsodo waste to Cacora.
This implies that the MMC is spending over Rs one crore only on the transportation of the Sonsodo waste to Cacora, with an official saying the GWMC’s annual bill may run into crores of rupees, as and when the corporation raises the bill on waste treatment as well.
Against this background, questions are being raised as to why the MMC has, to date, not set up a waste treatment plant at Sonsodo, when it has spent crores of rupees to tone up infrastructure at Sonsodo as per the High Court orders.
HPCC inaction and ‘waste’ of money
Fearing that the GWMC will sooner rather than later raise a bill on the waste treatment at the Cacora plant, MMC officials said the Chief Minister-headed High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC) should meet and take a call on setting up a waste treatment plant at Sonsodo and save the cost of waste transportation to the Cacora plant.
Incidentally, the government counsel had submitted to the court in April last year in the PIL filed by Citizens for Sonsodo that the HPCC would take a call on the setting up of a waste treatment plant at Sonsodo before July last year. However, the HPCC has yet to meet to date.
An MMC official said: “There’s no point in sending the Sonsodo waste to Cacora if the GWMC will charge the MMC for the waste treatment. Instead, the MMC should set up its own plant from the Finance Commission funds to meet the present and future requirements.”
He added: “When crores of rupees have been spent at Sonsodo as per the High Court orders to tone up infrastructure, the city fathers, officials, and the government should understand that it was done with a purpose to set up a waste treatment plant at the site. Hopefully, the GWMC’s decision to charge for waste treatment should open the eyes of the council and the powers that be.”
