Because every time it borders on going awry, democracy’s best known foot soldier – people- get up, stand up and deliver. On a rainy evening on Tuesday, Margao witnessed an outpouring of people’s emotions at the Herald-HCN’s Battle for Margao, People’s Sabha, the first every initiative of this nature by any newspaper. This unique gathering of the people of Margao, to witness a panel discussion on an issue which stinks – the garbage menace of Margao and recorded and played out on HCN, Herald’s TV arm, in its entirety, was novel in its presentation and unique in its objective.
This was a Town hall meeting with a difference and a MMC council meeting with a twist. For the first time ever, every key stakeholder in managing and solving the garbage menace were under one roof, the biggest of the stakeholders being the people of Margao. Admittedly in the ratio of passion to substance and solution, the former won in large doses, much to the chagrin of some of the panelists who felt that this was a debate and not a Gram Sabha meeting. The fact is that this was indeed a People’s Sabha aimed at finding solutions but if anyone expected that solutions would be found without the dam of pent up emotions bursting, they needed a reality check. And it was a reality check that everyone got.
There was a tsunami of angst at every aspect of the establishment. As it rained outside the packed BPS Club auditorium, there was cloud burst inside. Five years since the private initiative of Fomento Green was envisaged, to clean Margao and three and a half years since the construction licence was given to set up the plant, the MMC has not just left a mandate unfulfilled but has displayed criminal irresponsibility in leaving the people of Margao in the lurch, riveted by stench, discomfort and disease. The MMC has played its dirty petty politics and wrapped itself in corruption, as the issue of waste management has been completely forgotten.
While Herald thanks each of its panelists for their gracious acceptance of its invitation to be a part of the panel (the four MLAs of Margao, Fatorda, Curtorim and Curchorem, the Chairperson of the MMC and the CEO of Fomento Green), it notes with utter shock at the complete lack of rudimentary knowledge of the MMC Chairperson, on waste management, leave alone the awareness of his primary responsibilities as the first citizen of the city. In a show of abject apathy, and with all due respect- hopelessness- he showed how unfit he (or any of his councillors were) of being custodians of Margao’s interests. The MMC Chairperson Arthur D’Silva was not aware that there was indeed a Solid Waste Management Cell in the MMC of which he was a part of when Savio Coutinho was the Chairperson. Coutinho, in fact, exposed and embarrassed D’Silva when he was called upon to speak during the audience round.
The waste management issue revolved around four key points- segregated door to door collection, scientific capping of the dump or carting away of the entire waste, the excessive leachate entering ground water and the coordination between the council and the government over the softest excuse in the book-lack of funds, when funds are surely not lacking to send councillors on junkets to Europe to study waste management plants.
The argument on segregated door to collection was effectively settled when after a heavy debate the MMC , Chairperson committed to transporting segregated waste to Sonsoddo by August 1 and completing the process of outsourcing the door to collection by September 1. Herald also literally forced the MMC Chairperson to ensure that a special meeting be convened to discuss the collection of segregated garbage.
Herald-HCN and the people of Margao will hold the MMC to account and ensure that these deadlines are kept.
Meanwhile there were critical issues to which solutions were not found and this is worrying. On the issue of scientific capping of the existing Sonsoddo dump versus carting the waste away, the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) principle prevailed. This is understandable. After being crushed and choked with the rising Sonsoddo dump, people want it out of the way and there are not expected to understand the nuances of scientific capping. And those who point fingers at the people of Margao and say that they argue without understanding should first ask, has the MMC, the project proponent -Fomento Green or even MLAs for that matter, carried out a single awareness initiative for the citizens of Margao. Instead their belief and trust in MMC finding a solution, through its contractor, has been belied and buried in the very dump of rubbish called Sonsoddo. Is there any surprise that the people of Margao screamed, shouted, alleged and abused? This was people’s anger. And no one has any business to look for logic in people’s anger after they have been failed in this manner. If MMC and Fomento Green feel that capping of the dump scientifically is the best possible solution then capping should have been done by providing the landfill site and getting all clearances done. The landfill site takes two years to be handed over and the clearance from the Pollution Control Board for scientific capping is pending for a year. Thus with the waste neither segregated, or carted away or the dump capped, the people can’t be told what they call stories.
Enough is enough. Margao s tired of fairy tales. The people will now be a fierce active participant in ensuring that garbage is treated properly and the stench and pollution eradicated from their lives. And it will make the same MMC deliver, either with or without Fomento Green. Unfairly or not, Fomento Green was the whipping boy on Tuesday evening, blamed as much as the MMC for letting Margao down. If anything, there is one part of the blame they cannot get out of. For not pushing the MMC enough or not moving mountains in the corridors of power to get the landfill and the door to door garbage collection issue sorted out.
MMC be warned. Act or face the people of Margao. There is no room for debate or consultation. The Special Meeting has to be convened on July 1 to discuss door to door collection of segregated garbage to start with. This is an order. A People’s order.
