MARGAO
With the Election Commission lifting the election code of conduct that was in force for two-long months, Madgavkars and Fatordekars have a question or two for the City Fathers and Municipal babus “ how much more time will the civic body need to address the burning issue of Sonsodo and waste management imbroglio plaguing the commercial capital?
In fact, Municipal babus had blamed the intervening election code of conduct as an impediment to the host of initiatives planned by the Margao Municipal Council to address the garbage imbroglio. The question that has come to haunt the officials is whether the Municipal body used the time during the two-month-long election code to do the homework and brace up to float tenders for the execution of waste management work.
Otherwise, consider this. The Margao Municipal Council had set in motion, beginning with the first meeting of the elected council on July 9, 2021, the process to address the city’s waste management imbroglio. Sadly, the proposals had failed to take off for one reason or the other with MMC officials only insisting that the projects have reached the stage of tendering.
Inquiries by The Goan have only revealed that most of the proposals mooted by the elected council at the July 9 meeting have remained only on paper with none of the projects yet to see the light of the day.
Waste treatment plant
It’s now months since the Sonsodo waste treatment plant had reached a stage of saturation. Fires and smoke billowing from inside the plant has now become a routine affair, but plans by the civic body to rope in a contractor to cart away and remediate the waste remains on paper.
Given that it will take time for the civic body to comply with the codal formalities to rope in a contractor, The Goan understands that the MMC is now toying with a proposal to get the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) to clear the waste treatment plant of the thousands of tons of accumulated waste.
In mid-2020, the GWMC had cleared the Sonsodo waste treatment plant at a cost of Rs 80 lakh, and now, the MMC is looking forward to the corporation coming to its rescue again.
Bio-methanation plants
The Margao Municipal Council had drawn up an ambitious plan to set up two 25 TPD bio-methanation plants at Sonsodo to address the waste imbroglio. The proposal has been lying with the government-constituted technical panel for technology approval. In the meantime, a Mangalore-based firm has come out with an offer to set up an incinerator to treat the dry waste and a bio-methanation plant to take care of the wet waste. Given that the election code of conduct now stands withdrawn, the council meeting is expected to be convened soon to deliberate on the proposal.
Door-to-door waste collection
The Margao Municipal Council had cited the election code as an impediment towards the floating of a tender to outsource waste collection. The civic body has been charged for flouting the codal formalities by roping in a contractor without calling for tenders and was accused of giving repeated extensions for another contractor in violation of rules. With the ECI lifting the election code of conduct, all eyes are focused on the Municipal body whether it will tender the door-to-door waste collection on priority.
Post-fire incident
The Margao Municipal Council has a challenge at hand to restore the power supply to Sonsodo after last week’s fire incident. Installation of a new power transformer and other electrical equipment, estimated to cost around Rs 35 lakh is required to be put in place on priority. Currently, Sonsodo is without power supply, forcing the civic body to shift the baling operations to the old fish market behind the Municipal building.
Remediation of legacy dump
With the monsoons just around three months away, questions are being raised whether the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) will complete the work on the remediation of the Sonsodo dump before the onset of the monsoon. The GWMC also has a task at hand to transport the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) to the cement factories in Karnataka to make space at Sonsodo to complete the remediation.
