CALANGUTE: The Calangute panchayat is planning to appoint a Pune-based private company to handle waste management in the village at a cost of Rs 52 lakh per month.
The private agency will monitor the door-to-door waste collection, besides sweeping the main streets and parking areas, Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said at a recent gram sabha.
“We had gone to Pune to see how garbage is collected. We at Calangute Panchayat have tried a lot but panchayat members are not satisfied with how garbage is being collected,” he said about the planned new waste management system.
The new system involves dividing the village into three zones with each having 25 dedicated workers who will monitor and collect door-to-door garbage of households. The wet waste generated by hotels and commercial units will be lifted after 11pm on a daily basis, representatives of Swayambhu Transport, the Pune-based private company which offers garbage collection services, said during a presentation at the gram sabha.
“Our staff will be trained not only to collect waste but also to create awareness among the public on ways of segregation and tackling the growing garbage menace. We give top priority to the welfare of our workers and offer them the best facilities so that they constantly remain motivated to work. There are challenges but we work to resolve the problems. We want Calangute to be an example to other panchayats and civic bodies in the state,” Amit Lamkane, Manager of Swayambhu Transport, said.
The agency will take over the garbage trucks presently used by the panchayat and equip them with a GPS tracking system, which will also allow residents to track the movement of the garbage trucks.
The sarpanch said apart from door-to-door waste collection, the agency will clean two main roads every day – from the Calangute church up to Bandodkar statue and from Baga to Jambleshwar temple, and also be entrusted with cleaning of three parking zones belonging to the Tourism Department.
The agency will cost the Panchayat Rs 52 lakh a month for the entire garbage collection and cleanliness package, compared with Rs 38 lakh per month for garbage collection at present.
However, some members of the poorly attended gram sabha who visited Pune recently said they found garbage littered everywhere in that city and questioned their ability to keep Calangute clean.
