According to sources, during the tenure of Borkar the panchayat had purchased a baling machine worth around Rs 7 lakh to process plastic which would be collected in a weekly collection drive in the village.
The machine was installed at Zorint, Sancoale, apparently with the verbal consent of the land owner in exchange for the panchayat issuing some NOCs. However, it is learnt that the land owner after having had obtained the required panchayat permissions, refused to allow the machine in his property and accordingly moved it out.
Asked why the panchayat had not entered into an agreement with the land owner, Sarpanch Sharan Meti said he was not aware about the agreement, but will work out a solution to install the machine elsewhere. In fact, a confident Borkar had told Herald that with the commissioning of the machine the plastic menace in the village would be reduced to a great extent and at the same time neighbouring panchayats would also benefit from it.
But what one sees now is a sordid mess of plastic waste being strewn around haplessly which otherwise would have been taken care of by the
baling machine.
