I have read that, Salcete panchayat forum has written to Chief Minister about no manpower and no funds to handle the garbage. (Herald dated 22 August).
“No funds” for the hands of people who, collect garbage and clean our dirt from the bins! These God’s own people are working for their survival and sustenance and the peace I see on their faces are unparalleled. These people are the pillars of our society. The ones for whom we should be most thankful! “No funds” for them! Every year the condition of garbage gets worse. Goa’s garbage bins, at some places, are overflowing. What is going to happen to all that waste which our ‘literate people chuck into the bin which are kept at different spots, even by the side of gutters where it easily spills into the drainage and blocks it? Men and women come with plastic bags, and due to littered muck around the rubbish bin, fling their garbage bag from a distance. Thud! It falls outside the open bin, when the aim is not accurate. Then they go away without any guilt of the fine mess they make.
No manpower! When we see scrap of society —- those who move with tattered clothes, rickety legs, hungry bellies drawn back like a hollow, living a sub-human life. They have ready hands to work but no employment. Again, where would we be without the hands that collect the garbage? The thin garbage bags, near the garbage bins, are a sore sight at many places. It springs a stench which proves that the garbage van has committed the crime of not cleaning garbage for months. But residents who are close to the garbage bins do not notice the smell; it is part of their lives. They are born in such surrounding, pass their time in such surrounding, end their days in such surrounding. But guests, domestic and foreign, see how uncomfortable it is — a place unfit to live in. Because of swam of flies that buzz over the garbage bins, descend on people’s faces and fill the nearby homes; cows and dogs fight over scraps of rotting food and dead rats. The only inhabitants at such places, with smiles on their faces are the stray dogs.
Perhaps the, local self-governing bodies, have not shown much interest in this waste management. The government is not serious; or doesn’t think it is a priority to put a waste management system in place. Many feel that the neglect in handling waste is criminal. They say that there are several officials who are drawing huge salaries from the public fund to ensure that this work is done properly and yet, seeing, they do not see the garbage muck on the ground. They look at the shining stars that deck the skies like astronomers. Therefore, some ask whether these officials are mere interior decoration in the office.
