MARGAO
Asserting that the NGO had taken up the issue of overflowing sewage chamber with the Goa State Pollution Control Board, (GSPCB), the United Goans Foundation (UGF) has condemned what it termed as the “political roadshow” of BJP General Secretary Damu Naik and PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar to trivialise the NGO’s hard work in bringing the administration to task.
Addressing the media, UGF President Dr Ashish Kamat said people of Fatorda should know how and why did the PWD Minister and former local MLA wake up after six years to ‘inspect’ the sewage leakage behind the KTC bus stand.
He pointed out that the sewage has been flowing through the opposite cultivable fields (poisoning them and the ground water below) and then flowing along the SGPDA market, Colva Road into River Sal. “The ground water contamination is massive and it’s due to this that the stench emanates all along the Old Market area,” he added.
He further said what is even more appalling is that even after being elected twice, the current Fatorda MLA hasn’t found the time to attend to this problem. “The much-hyped earlier trips by late CM Manohar Parrikar hasn’t shown any results too. This careful avoidance of solving this problem arises from the fact that both Damu Naik and Vijay Sardesai as MLAs and de facto SGPDA members had overseen grant of permissions to the neighbouring high rise buildings without necessary sewerage infrastructure. This attempt to kill those paddy fields is an ulterior plan to make these fields unusable and convert it into real estate too,” he alleged.
Kamat said the PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar should have checked his own Department and found out that GSPCB had already been petitioned by United Goans Foundation in January 2020 as a result of which inspection was carried out, show cause notices were issued to Sewerage and Infrastructure Development Corporation of Goa Ltd, the MMC Chief Officer as well as Executive Engineer PWD WD 21 and which were later followed up by Notices under Section 33(A) of the Water Act 1974 and 31(A) of the Air Act 1981. The show cause issued to MD SIDCGL also mentioned a fine of Rs 10 lakh, he added.
The NGO has warned the local PWD EE, the MD of sewage corporation, MMC CO, besides GSPCB that if the issue is not resolved within the next 10 days, the NGO will be filing criminal complaints against all the authorities.
