MARGAO: Congress responded sharply to Dy CM Vijai Sardesai’s claim that Sonsoddo was a trouble inherited by his government from the Congress government and said the BJP-led government has only used Sonsoddo as a laboratory for its experiments. They further threatened to approach the NGT to find a permanent solution.
“I have always supported Vijai in whatever he wanted to do to deal with Sonsoddo but what we see is that since the present government took over, the garbage mound has practically doubled which means they have increased what they had inherited,” Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said.
He pointed out that initially a remedial segregation technology was used which said he had supported and said that the Rs. 15 crores spent on it was a total failure as the dump did not diminish.
“The government ought to explain to the people what they have done with that money,” he said. He added that he had even supported the proposed black hole technology that was never used.
“There is no application of mind absolutely and this government is not serious about dealing with this problem,” he said adding that the only solution maybe with the NGT.
Meanwhile locals poured out to ventilate their grievances and told their problems to Congress Chief Girish Chodankar as Sardesai was in no mood to listen to them.
Abdul Shaikh said they have to bear with flies and mosquitoes during the monsoons and the stench during the rest of the year while Arvind Kamodia pointed out that in 2004 the High Court was told that the Sonsoddo dump yard would be removed and the same has not been done till date.
Responding to their grievances Girish lamented that the people have only been given assurances with no tangible action taken and said that was because the government was not bothered.
Ignoring some of the resident’s allegation that Congress MLA Digambar Kamat was responsible for the dump yard mess and for bringing Fomento Green to manage the yard, Girish said the prime concern should be to stop the emission of smoke.
“This smoke is highly hazardous and has to be stopped as it will have a bad effect on the people specially the children,” he said urging the government to look out for a good consultant to address the problem.
Meanwhile, activist Savio Coutinho referred to the High Powered Co-ordinating Committee headed by the CM a decade ago and questioned why such a committee if people have to suffer from the fire and smoke for so long.
