MARGAO
With waste handling at Sonsodo turning into unmanageable proportions for want of treatment, the Margao Municipal Council has targeted top hotels and restaurants in the commercial capital for handing over unsegregated waste to the waste collectors.
In fact, based on a report compiled by the MMC sanitary section, Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar has imposed penalty on the two restaurants. The owners have been directed to appear before the Chief Officer and submit an undertaking that the restaurants will hand over only segregated garbage to the waste collector or face sealing of the premises.
Each of the two restaurants has been directed to pay a penalty amounting to Rs 25,000 within 24 hours.
The action is based on report submitted by the municipal supervisors engaged for the door-to-door collection of solid waste/garbage, informing that during the process of regular pick up of the waste from the unit/premises, the two establishments have been handing over the unsegregated waste to the Municipal waste collectors even after repeated instructions to properly segregate waste (dry and wet) before delivering it to the waste collector.
This was further confirmed during an inspection carried out by the Sanitary Inspectors of Margao Municipal Council on August 18, wherein it has been found that the waste from the premises was found mixed and unsegregated and handed over to the municipal waste collector.
The Chief Officer has pointed out that the establishment owner is solely responsible for the solid waste generated within the premises which has to be properly segregated into dry and wet waste and handed over to the Municipal waste collector for its disposal in accordance with The Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.
“The act of handing over the solid waste in a mixed manner without proper segregation (dry and wet) has created problems for the Municipal Council for the safe disposal of Municipal waste,” the Chief Officer said.
He added: “Such act is prohibited under The Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 & The Goa Non Bio- Degradable Garbage Control Act 1998 and liable for the penalty. The matter of collection and disposal of waste/garbage is monitored by the High Court of Bombay at Goa in Public Interest Litigation on Sonsodo waste management”.
Exercising powers under the provision of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, The Goa Non Bio-Degradable Garbage Control Act 1996, & provisions of the Goa Municipalities Act 1968, Chief Officer Sankhwalkar has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 for non-segregation of Municipal Solid Waste before handing the same to the Municipal waste collector.
While directing the two establishments to deposit the amount in the Council within a period of 24 hours on receipt of the notice, the Chief Officer has further directed the two restaurants to immediately segregate the waste generated in the establishments into dry and wet waste on daily basis and appear before him and give an undertaking that they will not repeat the violation.
Warning that that Municipal body will be compelled to initiate actions to seal the business activity under the provisions of above rules & laws, the Chief Officer has further threatened to file a case before the appropriate court of law without further notice.
The Margao Municipal Council had last year issued a public notice requesting the people and the business establishments to hand over segregated waste to the waste collectors. This is however, perhaps the first time the Margao civic body has cracked a whip against the violators, beginning with the erring hotel establishments.
Sources in the MMC pointed out that the civic body is anxious to reduce the waste collected from the households and commercial establishments going to Sonsodo every day to ensure the segregated dry waste goes for baling. MMC officials pointed out that waste segregation would not only help in sorting the waste at source, but would ensure that the waste transported to the Saligao waste treatment plant is only wet waste.
