MARGAO: In what appears to be a mission impossible, garbage collector Benny D’Costa assured to clear the garbage accumulated at Sucaldem in Chinchinim within a month and admitted that there was mismanagement for some time due to which the problem has arisen.
He said his brother Bosco tried to help to manage the garbage collection when he was away due to his personal problems and admitted that he made some mistakes because of which even the staff had left and disposal of collected garbage collapsed.
He admitted to collecting garbage from villages such as Navelim and Telaulim but pointed out that since the new panchayat was elected he stopped collecting waste from Navelim and only continued with Telaulim.
“They were paying something to the labourers and the transport charges only, as I used to undertake this work free,” he said recalling that earlier the collected garbage was taken away by Goa State Pollution Control Board and since its constitution the Solid Waste Management Corporation is taking it.
“The Solid Waste Management has asked us to pay Rs 5,000 for every tonne of garbage that we give to them,” he said, adding that the baling machine he had to bale the plastic waste was burnt in the fire that engulfed his garbage storing unit.
This issue featured very prominently at the Chinchinim-Deussua gram sabha held on Sunday, with a large number of villagers from Sucaldem vociferously demanding the clearing of the garbage dump, created in their ward.
Acting Sarpanch Valentino Barreto, who was even accused of going soft on the issue because of his close relationship with the D’Costa brothers, had asked the villagers for their advice in dealing with the problem.
Even though various representations were made in the past over the issue, it took centre stage when the Chinchinim-Deussua Biodiversity Committee Convener Mabel Menezes started having ward meetings to identify the biodiversity of the ward.
That is when people from Sucaldem complained to her that the biodiversity was being destroyed with the garbage dumps created in the ward and she was aghast to see the destruction caused when she visited the sites.
