FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Jai Damodar president Mahesh Dattaram Nayak and former government employees president John Nazareth have alleged that sewerage of buildings in Margao is discharged in open traditional drains instead of releasing it in Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) built by the government.
Addressing a press conference, Nayak and Nazareth stated that sewerage is spreading in all different directions and is leading to River Sal contaminating its water so also water of the wells in the vicinity. There are lot of people in South Goa who are dependent on the well water and on the fish that is breeding in river Sal for their livelihood, they added.
They said that Sewerage Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Limited floated tenders and carried out work orders amounting to crores of rupees in order get all the sewerage of all the buildings and houses in the Sewerage Treatment Plant at Margao.
They alleged that the work carried out of the sewerage is of substandard quality and is not carried out as per the time schedule mentioned in the work order. The bills are settled by issuing work completion order without fully completion of the work, they said.
According to them, various contractors have done various types of works however every time the sewage is released after completion of the repair works, the chamber starts overflowing. The project has become a jackpot for the Corporation and the contractors which do the work without any long time solution. They said that the Corporation chairman and its board members besides the officers are fully responsible for the mess which leads to pollution of River Sal.
Stating that it is a serious issue and lot of time has elapsed, Nayak and Nazareth have demanded that the State government investigate into this scam which is running into several crores of rupees on priority basis by appointing an independent inquiry officer preferably by a retired Judge as it causes health hazards to the people of Goa.
They have also demanded that the government should ensure that the flat owners of the buildings which are releasing their sewage in traditional drains are taken to task immediately by temporarily disconnecting their electric and water connection before any outbreak of major health hazards. In case they do not fall in line, the occupancy certificates granted to the buildings be revoked.
