The Corporation has not intimated societies, restaurants or the hotels about the non-collection of wet waste, neither through a public notice nor through any other method, and this will put the people at an inconvenience.
Panjim Mayor Uday Madkaikar said the decision has been taken as per the guidelines of Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal. He says CCP has informed the hotels and colonies to treat their garbage in within their premises. How they were intimated is by taking two meetings in eight months, surprising isn’t it? The hoteliers claim they have told CCP about space constraints in the city and their premises and are ready to pay extra charges but their pleas have gone in vain. Mind you the hotels are paying garbage fees amounting to lakhs of rupees to CCP.
Surprisingly, the decision came five months after the then CCP Commissioner Shashank Tripathi issued notices to hotels and around 44 housing complexes within the CCP’s jurisdiction of stopping wet waste collection. Interestingly then, Madkaikar had been against such a move saying the Commissioner has taken an arbitrary decision, without taking any elected representatives into confidence. So what has changed Mr Madkaikar? If the decision was wrong then, how can it be right now? Why this politics over garbage? Madkaikar must tell the people the reason for this move. Has it been discussed by the Council? Or is this an individual decision?
True the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 of MoEF&CC mandate that ‘bio-degradable waste should be processed, treated and disposed of through composting or bio-methanation within the premises as far as possible and the residual waste shall be given to the waste collectors or agency as directed by the local authority’. Madkaikar and CCP must understand that the corporation gets most of its taxes from hotels, restaurants and housing complexes in the form of trade licence tax, garbage tax and the house tax. Will CCP stop collecting taxes from hotels and restaurants and housing complexes, now that they are not collecting wet waste?
As for the NGT and the Supreme Court decision, has CCP ensured while granting licences for hotel or big housing projects, whether they have made provisions for treating waste? If not how was the licence granted? CCP must also answer whether waste management is now a criterion for licences to new projects? Do they check this before granting occupancy certificates? The Solid Waste Management Rules came in 2016, did CCP implement those while granting licences? Secondly, when the Waste Management Corporation is accepting over 15 tonnes of garbage everyday from CCP, what is the issue with the corporation?
Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo said CCP has to lift wet waste from hotels and housing societies, as it is duty bound to do so. The Saligao plant is accepting 20 tonnes of wet garbage from Panjim everyday. Even if there was a real need for non-collection of garbage, the Mayor could have taken a decision in consultation with all stakeholders. The least CCP could do is have given them time to make alternative arrangements. Has CCP even attempted to understand the problems faced by housing societies, or has it lent a helping hand to set up one? The answer is ‘no’. All said and done, with no housing societies or hotels in Panjim having facilities to treat wet waste within the premises, one thing is certain – the city will start to stink as people will start dumping waste on the roadside, the St Inez Creek and the River Mandovi.
