MARGAO
Waste burning banned by the National Green Tribunal may not form part of the election campaign for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
Political parties and the candidates in the fray may say that the issue falls in the domain of the local civic body or the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) to crack a whip against miscreants burning waste.
Welcome to the Commercial capital. Even as the candidates contesting the May 7 Lok Sabha polls and their supporters were on the ground to drum up support for their candidature, waste burning came back to haunt the authorities at the Khareband ward of the Margao Municipal area when the Margao municipality has been spending crores on door-to-door waste collection.
The waste dumped along the Margao railway tracks passing through Khareband was disposed of by burning on Monday noon. Thick black smoke billowed from the area, indicating that waste, including mixed waste and plastic, was set afire by miscreants.
This isn’t the first time that waste has been disposed of by burning in the area along the railway tracks, throwing up questions about whether the households along the railway tracks are not covered under the door-to-door waste collection. For, there’s no reason why the residents will dispose of their waste along the railway tracks if they are paying annual fees for garbage collection, raising another question of whether these households do not come under the house tax.
“The locals faced the thick black smoke emanating from the area around noon. Why should law-abiding citizens suffer for no fault of theirs? Margao Municipal Chief officer or the Chairperson should verify whether the households along the railway tracks are not brought under the house tax or garbage collected fees,” remarked a resident.
