PRATIK PARAB & KARSTEN MIRANDA
MARGAO: Amidst a furore that has erupted over the Margao Municipality’s decision to club garbage collection fee with the house tax, the MMC began its awareness programme today to educate the people about its new system for collection of garbage and the importance of segregation at source.
Reacting to their announcement regarding the house tax that will be implanted in the coming financial year, the Shadow Council, United Goans Foundation and citizens like Adv Rajeev Gomes issued statements condemning the decision.
Former MMC chairperson Savio Coutinho said that the “shadow council shall strongly oppose the “council’s move to charge the traditional loyal ‘Assessed House Tax Payers’ through house tax”.
“Why should the unassesed residential premises and the illegal commercial establishments that also produce waste get free services every time? Data collection should be completed first and all should be brought into the net. MMC has enough staff to collect the necessary data, but the powers prefer to listen to the lame excuses of the staff,” said
Savio Coutinho.
“The non assesses will benefit from the houses which are assessed who will be paying the garbage charges, in some cases without even contributing to any garbage due to non occupancy. The MMC is toeing the Fomento line, as there will be no redressal system set in place in case garbage is not collected. Basically making sure that the service provider gets paid at the cost of law abiding tax payer,” said Aashish Kamat, United Goans Foundation president
“The announcement by the Chairperson that garbage segregation and collection will kick start soon is a complete eye wash. Has the Council undertaken a census of the number of households and commercial enterprises within its jurisdiction? Without such a survey aren’t the existing tax payers going to be discriminately burdened with extra tax?” said Advocate Rajeev Gomes.
Gomes further emphasized, “The arbitrary restraint imposed by the Chairperson of Margao Municipal Council on the movement undertaken by Clean Margao, Green Margao to lift garbage from Margao should be condemned by all means. Wouldn’t the cleanliness drive have complemented the Council in its duty of maintaining sanitation.”
Responding to the charges MMC chairperson Babita Angle stated that the house tax would be implemented after the assessment of houses is completed. The announcement regarding conducting a survey to assess the number of houses under the MMC jurisdiction had been made by her after the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) had imposed conditions on the MMC for implementation of segregation at source with regard to the landfill site at the MMC.
The conducting of survey will take a few months as a tender will have to be floated to appoint the agency that will conduct the survey while the municipality at the moment has data of the houses that currently play tax. The MMC also has the information with regard to the number of houses from which garbage is currently being collected by the self help groups.
Under the new system and as part of the awareness programme the number of a supervisor for each ward will be given to the households who they can contact if there is any delay with the ongoing garbage collection drive. The model has so far proved to have been working in the wards where they have been implemented according to Tito Cardoso councillor from Fatorda.
