The hall of the old Secretariat was reverberating with
the ways and means of tackling the waste management.
There were views counter views proponents and
opponents and yet despite the Government coming out
with several proposals
a) giving a decent burial to erstwhile government in
proposal for disposal areas to be located in the
cluster of village / municipal area solid waste ;
b) another giving final touches to the large areas
selected for the North and South Goa District
c) the scientific disposal of solid waste at the
existing sites in Curca and Sonsodo in Margao and
shifting of the existing site at Sada in Mormugao
d) the two year long term plan for a Japanese firm to
ensure a free of cost disposal of solid waste
apparently in abandoned unused mine pits adopting
landfill measures;
the solid waste management got the attention it
deserves and without an iota of doubt this needs to be
high on the "non performing " NCP INC MGP Government
which came to power on 7.6.2005
But besides the nitty gritty of the solid waste
management and the environment minister's Dr Wilfred A
De Souza's larger than life proposals to rid off solid
waste the short term measures remain yet to be put in
line.
This writer interacted informally with some of the
participants of the presentation on solid waste
management viz sanitary inspectors chief officers
chairpersons and councillors and
according to one such official there was a genuine
demand to ensure that collection of solid waste should
be ensured at any cost.
One suggested that collection at night would serve
the purpose as this would ensure that waste does not
putrify when collected the next day while others
demanded that Municipal trucks be placed near the
markets so that the vendors themselves clean and
dispose of the waste at late evenings.
Others were resentful of the fact that under the 74th
Constitutional amendment the Municipalities were given
statutory powers and therefore the CO's ought to be
vested with full powers to ensure the discharge of
their duties. One felt that the post of Director
Municipal Administration was superfluous as he could
not give orders to CO's who have statutory powers
infact solid waste management was the perogative of
the Councillors and the CO and the Government could
only help in providing them land for disposal of solid
waste.
But both the Urban Development Minister Mr Joaquim
Alemao and the leader of the Opposition Mr Manohar
Parrikar have been at logger heads with the Chief
Officer of Margao Municipal Council and the
Commissioner of Corporation of City of Panaji
respectively. So bitter has been the war between the
executive and the legislators that the common man
wonders --- who enjoins the SUPERIOR or SUBORDINATE
status. In fact it put this writer to an embarrasing
situation when one female sweeper of the Corporation
of City of Panaji felt that Commissioner N
Suryanarayan was being victimised for no sound reason.
The same has been the case with Mr Sanjiv Gadkar CO
MMC who took up office in May 2005 . His office does
not have a Grade I Municipal Engineer and the existing
vacancy is being filled by an extension granted for
yet another year to the ME Mr Chandwani, this despite
the fact that CM Pratapsing Raoji Rane announced that
his government would not grant extensions to any
officer. Is the Government bankrupt of Engineers and
worst still why is a non Goan Mr Chandwani favoured is
it the Builders lobby that is ensuring the continuance
of Mr Chandwani one councillor of the BJP told this
writer.
It is now almost certain that heads are bound to roll
and as the grapewine has it ex Commissioner of City of
Panaji the Byculla Mumbai bred native of Aldona Mr
Sanjith Rodrigues is going to be the new Commissioner
of City of Panaji atleast until the end of the
extended term in October 2005 and by which time all
the Municpal bodies excluding Ponda will go to the
polls. Efforts to replace CO Margao Municipal Council
have not materialised yet despite a memo served to
this "good officer" for dereliction of duties viz the
waste site at Sonsodo Margao wall collapsed and the
Minister Urban development held the CO at fault.
Meanwhile the ex Chairperson of the Mormugao Municpal
council Mr Milton Barretto will be the PA of the Urban
development Minister apparently a councillor from
Mormugao jocularly remarked that Mr Barretto would be
better placed to advise the Minister on the "game of
musical chairs" of highest number of Chairpersons in a
term occuping the top office which his Municipality
played from 2000 till date.
In fact the Mapusa Municipal council have already
taken seriously the directions of the Urban
Development Minister Mr Alemao to ensure that
development plans are "whetted" by his office this
they felt is an encroachment on statutorily
constituted bodies.
There is however a possibility that Mr Pratapsing Rane
who has been playing politics to embarrass the NCP
Deputy CM Dr Wilfred De Souza by stalling a court
order to dispose waste at Curca despite public
protests may finally pull the curtains down to the
whole issue by dissolving all the Municipalities and
announcing fresh elections in September 2005 after the
budget session beginning from 11th August 2005 and
before the end of the five year Municipality term on
27 October 2005
For the common man solid waste must go -- no politic
please is the message.
>From the Old Secretariat- Adil Shah's Palace
GODFREY J I GONSALVES
Borda Margao Goa
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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