Team Herald
MARGAO: Even as alert villagers caught a person dumping animal waste in the creek at Handi, Chandor-Cavorim Panchayat stepped in quickly and fined the person Rs 25,000 for violating the solid waste management rules of the State.
Villagers have been complaining of getting some foul odour from the water body for quite some time now. Sunday morning, they caught 36-year-old Liyakat Bapari as he was dumping waste of a slaughtered bull in the water body and immediately contacted the sarpanch.
Sarpanch Edward D’Silva disclosed that around six months back the same person was caught dumping similar waste but no action was taken against him as he had promised to stop this nefarious activity and since he was a fellow villager residing at Culsabhat.
Liyakar said he had not slaughtered any animal but had got the beef from Belgaum.
“The beef was hidden in the truck transporting vegetables to State and about half a cow meat was there,” he said.
However, Edward refuted this and disclosed that Liyakat’s nephew had confessed that they had slaughter the animal at home.
It would be pertinent to point out that a couple of years back, the same Liyakat, was caught burning animal fat at his house to extract the oil.
The police could not take any action against Liyakat as the meat or slaughtered animal was not found in his possession. However, as he was found dirtying the place, the panchayat has imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 which he has agreed to pay.
Meanwhile after he confessed that the meat is smuggled through trucks carrying vegetables to State, the sarpanch has appealed to the people to purchase their vegetables only from local farmers and not to purchase it from the migrants who import the vegetables.
“There are vegetarians who are eating vegetables that were packed with beef and what if a live animal was transported and it excreted in the vehicle which would come in contact with the vegetables stocked in it,” said Edward.
