Pratik Parab
The proposal of Rs 1000 crore under the Smart City Scheme for Margao has been scrapped resulting in the 28 tenders for ward development being lost in transit. Usually the tenders which have to be opened within 48 hours and awarded haven’t even been looked at for months now. Some of the councillors have lost hope of the tenders being opened and awarded since only about 20 days remain for the model code of conduct to come into force. These tenders took with them the dream of effective garbage collection in the town.
Various tenders of footpaths, road work and other ward level work will not see the light of day while tenders for procurement of dustbins, rickshaws for onsite collection and compactors for transport of collected waste have now only remained in black and white.
After a lot of hammering and follow ups to tackle the garbage issue, the MMC Garbage Incharge Engineer, Deepak Dessai made a proposal for 6 rear loading garbage collectors, 2 dumpers, 1200 garbage bins of a 240 litre capacity and 200 bins of 20 litres capacity. It was also planned to outsource the collection. The proposals now lie at the DMA and are highly unlikely to be passed within the time available. The issue has already rocked 3 MMC meets and compelled the corporation to hold a special meet to take steps towards a better system of garbage collection.
While speaking to the Vice-Chairperson of MMC, it was understood that the ward development tenders were supposed to bring relief to the small time woes of unstructured garbage collection, restoration of streets and footpaths.
