Salcete’s and one of Goa’s most important and prestigious civic bodies, the Margao municipal Council (MMC) is actually dealing with a lot of in house filth- its own sewage. And how does it treat it? Well, it doesn’t. Herald has learnt that the MMC does not have a septic tank and the all the swage generated from the MMC, from where the city is run, flows directly into a gutter.
Now let’s look at this. In a classic display of double standards, what’s sewage for rest of the city is obviously not considered ‘sewage’ by the MMC of its flows within its own building.
The installation of a septic tank is a must in any building, for sewage to be released. Violators are liable to get their water and power connections disconnected. The MMC follows this rule, except obviously, in its own office.
An official at the MMC on the condition of anonymity told “The sewage of MMC is released in a gutter which goes and empties into the River Sal. The MMC building is very old. No one can even move a brick without the permission of the Archaeology Department. The toilet block in the MMC is as it is, since its inception. The condition of the toilet block is in a mess.
Staff of the tax, accounts, technical and sanitation sections as well as thousands of people coming to MMC use this toilet every day. Several group D staff also use the toilet. The toilet is actually used as a public toilet.
The MMC is a Class A Municipality and is always given section 1 gazetted officers as Chief Officers. Sadly, not one Chief Officer has thought over this problem seriously and solved it permanently. The MMC receives several complaints of release of sewage in drains and subsequently they cut the connections of water and power is cut followed by several hearings. Surprisingly the MMC itself doesn’t know what has been happening in their building” said Prakash Naik from Aquem.
Shriram Raiturkar an activist and a keen observer of the MMC said, “The MMC should not try teaching lessons and punish general public offenders until the time that they correct their mistake” he said. “The MMC has got so many efficient and wise Chief Officers till date. So how is it that not even one of them bothered to solve this problem,” he added.
“The MMC who has themselves broken the law have to be penalised by the Health Department and their water and power connection has to be disconnected” demanded Raiturkar.
The Former Chairperson of MMC and President of Shadow Council Savio Coutinho said, “The toilet block at the MMC was built back when the MMC building was taken up for renovation. However there was no place to build the septic tank. Hence for several years the sewage was let in drains”.
He added that a small septic tank was built earlier but the capacity of that was insufficient due to which the tank overflowed very often and was needed to be emptied at short intervals. Other than these temporary methods precious little has been.
