the goan I network
MARGAO
Where’s the High Powered Coordination Committee (HPCC), the special panel constituted by the government to deal with Sonsodo, which is headed by none other than the Chief Minister?
Well, nothing has been heard from the HPCC in recent months, if not years, even as the burning decades old waste issue is craving for a solution. The high-powered panel has been headed by as many as four Chief Ministers, with late Manohar Parrikar heading the panel twice in the last decade.
While the HPCC was constituted during the tenure of then Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, the panel was later headed twice by Manohar Parrikar, besides Laxmikant Parsekar and now incumbent Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Besides the Chief Minister, members of the HPCC include the Urban Development Minister and the MLAs of Margao, Fatorda and Curtorim and
the DMA.
When Deputy CM Vijai Sardesai was questioned by the media on the status of the HPCC, he shot back saying, “The HPCC will not work if the members sit in air-conditioned rooms. Instead, they should come down on the ground to face the reality.”
Former Margao MMC Chairperson, Savio Coutinho, said it is now 10 years since the HPCC was put in place and the panel has been headed by as
many as four CMs during this period. “Can there be any committee bigger than a committee which is headed by the CM of the state,” Coutinho demanded
to know.
Meanwhile, South Goa MP-elect, Francisco Sardinha, who is in the national capital, has said that he would take up the Sonsodo issue with the District Collector, South, after he returns home in a day or two.
“It has been brought to my notice that the smoke due to the fire in the dump at Sonsodo is causing lot of hardships to the surrounding villages of Curtorim, Housing Board, Fatorda, Raia and Sao Jose de Areal. I am currently in Delhi. After I return home on Thursday, I will follow up the matter with the district Collector,” Sardinha added.
