MARGAO
Blame it on the municipal body or otherwise, segregation and sorting of waste at the Cuncolim Municipal waste treatment plant has come to a standstill with the labour contractor abstaining from the work for want of payment of dues of the last three months.
While the labour contractor has insisted that the Municipality has not cleared his dues amounting to Rs 3.60 lakh of the last three months, the Cuncolim Municipal Council is yet to formally rope in a new contractor to handle the waste dumped at the treatment plant on scientific lines.
Sources informed The Goan that while the door-to-door waste collection exercise of the Cuncolim Municipality has been going on unhampered, the waste collected by Municipal workers and later dumped at the treatment plant located at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate is awaiting segregation and sorting since the beginning of the month till date for want of the labourers.
The Goan understands that the contractor and a group of labourers made their presence felt at the treatment plant site, but sources said that it would take some days before the heap is finally cleared off.
Cuncolim Municipal Chief Officer Shankar Gaonkar was not available for comment as he is away in New Delhi, but CMC engineers attributed the situation to the non-payment of money for the labour contractor of the last three months. "The Municipal body has also not renewed the contract with the labour contractor and the civic body has not cleared the dues of the last three months," a municipal engineer stated.
The engineer further told The Goan that the question of engaging a new contractor will arise only after the civic body floats a tender inviting prospective parties to apply for the job. "Though a Pune based contractor had expressed his desire to take up the work of scientific segregation of the waste at the treatment plant, the civic body has till date not floated any tender inviting prospective parties to bid for the project," sources said.
Cuncolim Municipal Councillor Mario Moraes has expressed his unhappiness over the situation at the waste treatment plant. "When I visited the plant site on Thursday morning, a waste dump greeted me there with all activity concerning waste segregation and sorting coming to a standstill. This has been going on for the last five days. The Municipality has to act soon. Either they have to pay the contractor of his dues of the last three months or the Council should rope in a new consultant cum contractor," he said.
Moraes pointed out that though the Council was open to rope in a new consultant from Pune, nothing has materialised till date, raising questions whether the civic body is interested in the scientific treatment of waste.
