Team Herald
MARGAO: The Nuvem Village panchayat resolved to oppose the proposed waste treatment plant at Verna plateau, citing that it will badly affect River Sal, besides agricultural fields and water bodies.
At the ordinary gram sabha meeting held on Sunday; chaired by Sarpanch Frida D’Sa, members strongly objected to the proposed waste treatment plant.
Members also claimed that neither environment impact assessment (EIA) report has been put forth before the public nor the government made the concerned panchayat body aware about the project.
The sabha also resolved to oppose the draft Jetty Policy 2022 and demanded it be scrapped immediately.
Indira Rodrigues and Walter Rodrigues raised the issue at the meeting and alleged that the said Jetty Policy is to benefit the big corporations involved in the coal business.
“The government has kept the people in total darkness over the jetty policy. Marine life will be badly affected besides khazan, agricultural fields and in general the environment will be destroyed, if the policy is implemented. It is purely for coal transportation,” alleged Indira.
Later, the resolution was moved and it was passed unanimously.
With regards to waste treatment plant at Verna plateau, it is pertinent to note that in 2020 too, the Village panchayat had taken a resolution opposing the proposed garbage treatment plant. The villagers of Loutolim, Verna and Nagao too have expressed their strong objection to the said project.
Everson Valles, a local stated that the proposed project is a huge one and it intends to cater to the waste of nearly 39 panchayats and it has been proposed to build at Verna plateau.
“Water bodies, agricultural fields, springs and more importantly the lifeline of Salcete, River Sal will be badly affected. River Sal has been already polluted because of the industries at Verna plateau. Livelihood of hundreds of people depending on the river and agriculture will be affected too,” he claimed.
Further, he said that there will be a possibility of leachate flowing on the roads, and plastic and other waste will be strewn everywhere, as the garbage carrying trucks will move on the village roads.
Zarina D’Cunha, a social activist claimed that the government has not done any environmental impact assessment before going ahead with the project. “It looks like there has been no scientific mind of application being applied on the project. The proposed project will be built on the origin of the River Sal and hence there are more and more possibilities that it will result in more pollution into the river,” she stated.
Gram sabha members present at the meeting supported the demand to oppose the proposed garbage treatment plant at Verna, and later resolution was taken in this regard.
Few gram sabha members even urged the panchayat body not to keep the resolution in the file, but send it to the department concerned at the earliest.
At the meeting, Sarpanch Freda D’Sa appealed to the villagers to cooperate with regard to preparing the list of migrants residing in the jurisdiction of village panchayat.
“We have decided and few initiatives have also been implemented pertaining to keep the village clean. Collection of garbage being done at the regular intervals,” the Sarpanch informed.
One of the gram sabha members demanded to take serious note of the illegal dumping of garbage in addition to Everson’s suggestion to start with ‘garbage sentinel’ scheme in the village.
At the meeting, several village level committees, including Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), Garbage Committee, Village Child Committee etc. were re-constituted.
Chairman of BMC Jose Roque Andrade explain the function BMC and how the BMC members and panchayat ward members should contribute to BMC.
He said validation of PBR is not final, some suggestion/recommendation are given by Thematic Expert Committee on PBR during the validation which have to fulfil/achieved. He said that the PBR is open for continuous input regarding the biodiversity and appeal to gram sabha members to provide the input.