MARGAO: The Aquem Baixo gram sabha on Sunday decided to appeal to the chief minister for help in disposing the garbage generated in the village by asking him to allot land for the panchayat for garbage management as owners of every piece of land identified by the panchayat have refused to give it to the panchayat.
Sarpanch Siddesh Bhagat argued that the villagers have sacrificed lot of their land for the government for the military camp in the village and also for water resources department and now it was incumbent upon the government to help the village.
He told the villagers that the plan for garbage management is ready and would be implemented within two months of the land being given to them to set up the plant and said both dry and wet garbage would be managed provided they get a plot of around 300 sq mts.
He said that while dry garbage would be granulated in half the plot, wet garbage would be turned to compost by a plant similar to the one set up by Nuvem Panchayat that turns wet waste into compost in 24 hours and costs around Rs 7 lakh for 80 tonne capacity.
The dry waste will not be baled as is done at many places, but instead will be converted into granules which again will be sent to the cement manufacturing units that have kilns that run at high temperature where it will be used as fuel.
Incidentally, the panchayat is on the verge of banning plastic in the village and sought the villagers help in implementing the plastic ban.
PM Letter: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letter to sarpanchas advising them to undertake rain water harvesting was not only read but also discussed at the gram sabha. The villagers resolved to construct a bandhara in the large field so that water retention is done to enable farmers to cultivate that field throughout the year.
It was also decided to undertake rain water harvesting in buildings and the panchayat building would be taken up first so that the rain water from this building can be used for some purpose and will be a model for the villagers to follow.
Migrants: The issue of large number of migrants living in the village was discussed quite extensively at the gram sabha where the panchayat was asked not to issue residence certificate or income certificate to any migrant.
