MARGAO
When the Margao municipal officials and city fathers take pride in bringing a turnaround at Sonsodo, the civic body was caught on the wrong foot as diapers and sanitary pads were either found buried or dumped in the open at the waste management site.
The discovery has sparked outrage within the municipal corridors and among citizens, raising serious questions about the handling of biomedical waste that was meant to be treated and disposed of at the Kundaim biomedical facility, as per government directives.
Municipal officials remained tight-lipped on whether the lapse occurred because the government-appointed agency had failed to transport the waste to Kundaim due to pending payments, or whether the civic body itself had stopped handing over the waste owing to disputes over fees.
With the waste found half-buried at the site, questions are being raised on whether the municipality had quietly halted the transfer of such hazardous waste for safe disposal. Sources pointed out that disposing of diapers and sanitary pads in the open is a punishable offence, as civic bodies are mandated to hand over such waste to authorised agencies.
Margao Congress Block Convener Savio Coutinho strongly criticised the MMC, accusing it of gross failure in waste management. He said heaps of sanitary waste, including pads and diapers, were dumped barely three metres from a neighbouring high school and covered with mud, calling the practice completely unacceptable.
Coutinho alleged that for several months the waste had not been transported to Kundaim and instead lay dumped at Sonsodo. “All that the MMC does is collect hefty sanitation fees from taxpayers, only to squander them on dubious waste management deals,” he charged.
He added: “A year ago, MMC chairperson Damu Shirodkar had dumped waste outside the council's jurisdiction in Benaulim, which had to be brought back to Margao after protests from the villagers there. In the bargain, the MMC lost lakhs of rupees on transportation of the waste to and fro."
Will GSPCB act?
Meanwhile, questions are mounting on whether the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) will step in and order a probe or "turn a blind eye" as in the past. Sources revealed that truckloads of mud were being transported to Sonsodo, fuelling speculation that it was being used to cover the dumped sanitary waste. Once again, Coutinho accused the pollution control board of having little control over the situation and demanded immediate action against the MMC for its irresponsible handling of hazardous waste.
