No word on implementation of scheme to charge Bulk Waste Generators after it was kept in abeyance by civic chief in election season
Waste generated in the commercial capital.
Photo Credits: File photo/The Goan
MARGAO
The dust kicked up over the Lok Sabha election for the South Goa seat seemed to be settling down. Officials roped in for election work have all returned to duties and politicians are heading out of station to take a break after a gruelling campaign.
Welcome to the Margao Municipal Council, where the civic babus are anxiously waiting for a green signal from the political masters to bring around 95 hoteliers and other establishments under the Bulk Waste Generators category and pave the way for the generation of additional revenue, expected to enrich the civic coffers by Rs 1.5 crore annually.
Consider this. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, Margao Municipal chairperson Damu Shirodkar on April 12 issued a fiat to Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar to keep on hold the proposal to levy bulk waste generators after a delegation of hoteliers and others called on him. The civic babus could not say no to the civic chief in the election season when voters and votes matter more than civic and other issues.
It’s now over a week since curtains came down on the May 7 Lok Sabha election, but there’s no clarity in the corridors of the Margao Municipal building, whether the time-consuming exercise initiated by the civic officials and staff to categorize business establishments as bulk waste generators will ever see the light of the day.
Blame it on lack of political will or simply vote bank politics, the exercise to categorize bulk waste generators in the commercial capital has been dragging on for the last four years since former director of Municipal Administration Dr Tariq Thomas set in motion the bulk waste generators scheme under the Model Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling Bye-Laws 2020).
Inquiries with the Margao Municipal Technical section revealed that the engineers are waiting for instructions from the council to implement the bulk waste generators scheme. “We have already set in motion the process by asking the 95 bulk waste generators, mostly hoteliers, to either take care of their waste by setting up waste treatment mechanism or pay the prescribed fees to the civic body to handle and treat their waste,” informed an engineer.
The engineer added: “The civic body is not pressurizing the bulk waste generators to pay the garbage collection and treatment fees. They have been given the option to treat the waste generated at their establishments within their premises. As per the scheme, bulk waste generators are required to pay Rs eight for every kilogram of waste generated in their premises.”
Proposal for another survey questioned
How many more surveys will convince Margao Municipal City Fathers to give the green signal to municipal engineers to implement the bulk waste generators scheme for the hoteliers and business establishments in the commercial capital?
Civic officials in the know in private ruled out the question of conducting yet another survey on the business establishments categorized as bulk waste generators by the civic body.
“It is a fact that civic chief Damu Shirodkar had told the Chief Officer to keep on hold the proposal to declare the 95 establishments as bulk waste generators on the plea that the municipality should conduct another survey of the establishments. But, how many more surveys will satisfy the City Fathers and the powers that be from implementing the bulk waste generators scheme,” remarked a civic official.
The official added: “We had categorized the 95 establishments as bulk waste generators after a detailed survey of the establishments. Our supervisors and staff surveyed these establishments for around eight days. We fail to understand how the civic chief has called for another survey. There’s no point in conducting another survey.”
Inaction of four years adding to waste woes of commercial capital
Will the Margao City Fathers and the powers that be controlling the civic body explain why the Margao Municipality has failed to implement the bulk waste generators scheme for the last four years?
Records show that it was at the instance of former Director of Municipal Administration, Dr Tariq Thomas that the Margao Municipality had set in motion the process to implement the bulk waste generators scheme in Margao in the year 2020.
The former Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar along with civic officials had initiated a drive by holding awareness programmes at the housing societies across the city.
Since then a host of Chief Officers and Municipal Chairpersons have presided over the affairs of the Margao Municipal Council, but the scheme is yet to see the light of the day.
Thanks to incumbent Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar and a team of municipal engineers, besides former engineers who had worked in the civic body to conduct the survey and prepare the scheme before the same was kept on hold a month ago.
