PACHU MENON
The popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by the legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchan is currently running its Karamveer series on achievers in various fields and honours the great services they do for the nation and the society at large.
As contestants on the hot seat of one of India’s best-loved game shows, they, in turn, share their fulfilling experiences with the audience.
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the hot seat was graced by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, sociologist, social activist, and founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement, who continues to campaign for cleanliness in India and abroad.
Sharing space with him was the Municipal Commissioner from Indore, Asheesh Singh IAS, who was behind efforts that cleared 13 lakh tonnes of refuse in just six-months through bio-mining in the city.
In a spic-and-span form after bagging the cleanest city tag for the third straight year in the central government’s cleanliness survey, the city of Indore has every reason to be proud of its city fathers.
With initiatives that spell wonder, the city of Indore has been extensively experimenting with methods to control waste within its limits.
For instance, for better waste management, the city civic body is already running around 20 of its public transport buses on the bio-compressed natural gas (CNG) made from vegetable waste.
According to the consultant employed by the Indore Municipal Corporation, the bio-methanation plant at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Fruits and Vegetable market can convert about 20 tonnes of waste into 1,000 Kg of bio-CNG.
Intending to generate bio-CNG from the waste of meat products like mutton, chicken and fish, plans are afoot to set up two more bio-methanation units to increase the production of bio-CNG to nearly 4000 kg to run about 70 buses on it.
So far we have been only hearing about garbage heaps and how they have turned into unmanageable problems for the administration in Goa. But for a city like Indore, proper and scientific waste management has helped it achieve the impossible by way of the generation of by-products that are helping it tide over some of its fuel problems.
At an experimental stage, the IMC also proposes to set up a plant to treat hair waste and convert it into a bio-fertilizer, especially for horticulture.
Besides being India’s cleanest city, Indore’s ‘Waste to Energy’ prototype will soon have 72 nations, Asian and African, set to follow the model.
Inculcating a remarkable civic sense, the residents of Indore were convinced that they could rid their city of garbage. Timely alterations in garbage collection methods by the municipal corporation too helped.
For Indore, cleanliness, waste management and energy savings always come first.
At a time when garbage management techniques in Goa are at its nadir with the state continuing to reel under the uncertainties arising out of poor waste disposal services, it is a pity that the government has not been able to devise ways and means to tackle this menace.
Moreover, the frequent foreign jaunts undertaken by ministers and their delegations to understand the nuances of waste clearance, and all at the cost of public money, have not borne fruits either. The Sonsodo dump in the State requires more than a collective resolve to sort out the mess, but prominent legislators are ‘playing for pride’ amongst themselves over the issue and this is clear-cut example of cheap politics.
The Sonsodo dumpsite has been a festering wound of Margao for years now. Treating the garbage dump and processing the incoming waste at Sonsodo has been an unwanted legacy of sorts changing hands with every change in government.
With the ongoing legal battle between the Margao Municipal Council and Fomento eliciting no response from the government as was expected of it by way of an intervention application before the district court at Margao in a bid to take over the site ahead of plans to set up a modern plant at Sonsodo, the mess appears to have attracted other ‘interests’ to the forefront of the disquiet.
The ‘war’ that has presumably erupted over Sonsodo garbage between the Fatorda legislator Vijai Sardesai and Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo had the former leading residents of the area to protest against the minister’s visit to the garbage treatment facility.
But was such a show of aggression warranted? Hadn’t the Fatorda MLA during his tenure as the Deputy CM publicly expressed his displeasure over the ‘worsening situation’ at the Sonsodo dump castigating the MMC and Fomento (Green) for their inability to tackle the issue in earnest?
Despite assurances of clearing the mountainous Sonsodo dump before the 2019 elections, there was nothing much to show by way of improvement. The ‘growing mountain’ of garbage at Sonsodo was an eyesore even then!
Palpably, after the roads and highways in the state, the heaps of refuse at Sonsodo and the waste treatment plant have come by as a timely issue to be politically exploited and some leaders are obviously making the most of the opportunity.
Of course, the demand for a ‘Clean-Margao’ resonates through the entire commercial capital of the state without there really being a need for politicians to gain a mileage highlighting the problems of the city.
Now with the two warring leaders deciding to patch up over a drink in the trademark Goan style, it remains to be seen how well the Sonsodo issue will be resolved. Rather than dwell on political tamashas, leaders cutting across party lines must join hands to tackle the gargantuan problem.
The Indore module of garbage disposal could do wonders for Goa. Of course, the whole exercise will entail active participation from the public as well.
‘If Indore can, why can’t Goa’ is, however, the big question that lingers on in one’s mind. Is ridding the state of the garbage menace such a Herculean task as it is made out to be?
