JULIO D’SILVA
julio@herald-goa.com
The door to door garbage collections started by Margao Municipal Council around two and a half years back, is in doldrums as till date segregated waste collection has not commenced and in the six wards of Fatorda where it has started, mixed waste is still given by the households.
MMC did give every house two bins to separate dry and wet waste and also gave people pamphlets explaining what is wet and dry garbage; some families had started segregating the waste using the two bins provided by the council.
However, the labourers would come with one big bin and the dry and wet waste would be mixed and taken away. Some families who used to give segregated waste were disgusted with the manner in which the workers mixed the garbage and stopped the segregation.
“There were a few families in my neighbourhood who would segregate the waste but stopped doing it as the workers would mix all waste and all our trouble in segregating was nullified,” said Jose Maria Miranda from Borda one of the persons who used to segregate waste.
Initially the door to door garbage collection was done through self help groups whose workers did not insist on collecting segregated waste and that is why the problem persists till date. “The self help group workers failed to instill discipline by collecting only segregated waste and that is why people have not got into the habit of segregating their waste,” said Rupesh Mahatme Malbhat councilor.
Jose Fernandes representing ward No. 7 said the garbage was not being collected in a systematic manner. “The labourer comes with only one bin and two other small bags reportedly to put the segregated waste which bags are insufficient and therefore garbage gets dumped in the bin and gets mixed,” he said.
MMC Dy Chairperson Tito Cardozo said, “I agree that awareness has to be created and people have to be educated on how to segregate the waste and all this will be decided at the special council meeting that we shall have soon,” he said.
However, now the waste is being collected by the Municipal council through 96 labourers who are paid Rs 325 per day. “I had asked for 250 labourers to manage the door to door collection but was given only 96 who are also paid less than what they would get in the open market,” said Sanitary Inspector Viraj Arabekar.
To solve this problem the MMC had invited tenders to handle the door to door garbage collection and two parties had bid for it. However, the tender is not yet finalised and it has been lying with the Director of Municipal Administration who is supposed to decide who the work should be allotted to.
Ironically, while the town is slipping in garbage management, the Sanitation Committee of the council has not even met since the last meeting in August when Tito resigned as the chairman of that committee.
