While Cortalim constituency is being beautified with public and private spaces decorated with cribs and stars for Christmas, garbage piles still haunt parts of Arossim.
The garbage contractor has reportedly stopped collecting garbage due to pending bills and authorities are yet to respond quickly to tackle the problem. Some members of the panchayat had presented a brief plan identifying an isolated area in Cuelim and the matter has been kept on hold by authorities, thereby paralyzing the garbage management initiatives by the panchayat.
Speaking to Herald, a panch at Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim (CAC) Panchayat said: “The waste management initiative was started in August 2012, but it was stopped in June this year. As a result, waste from open areas along Verna road and Arossim beach has not been cleared for the last six months, because the contractor has not been paid his pending dues of over Rs 1.5 lakh.”
“The earlier panchayat secretary did not follow procedures and now, the present secretary is also following the same standards. As the elected body’s are hands are tied, we had also asked the present secretary to check into the matter and penalize the person who had goofed up in the matter.”
“A master plan for a self-sustainable waste management has been presented to all authorities concerned with land even identified. But there has been no support from the government and its own grant of Rs 1crore per panchayat was more than enough to convert our plan into reality. The government declared that our village would be taken as the first model for waste management. But so far, nothing has changed,” added the panch.
The panch insisted that all correspondence had been forwarded to local MLA and Environment Minister Alina Saldanha for reference.
When contacted, CAC Sarpanch Cassandra Almeida stated that “the previous secretary failed to make the payment, due to which the contractor stopped collecting garbage in the village”.
Asked to explain the failure to pay the contractor, Almeida replied: “It was stated by authorities that there was no proper tracking and certain procedures were not followed.”
When contacted, CAC Panchayat Secretary Kiran Mesta claimed that the situation had arisen during the previous secretary.
“As per my knowledge, the auditors noted that there was no proper procedure followed because as per the Garbage Disposal Act, only dry waste is meant to be collected. Now, the same procedure is being followed and it has been sent for approval. However, garbage collection is still practiced with manual labourers, who are paid Rs 350 per day,” said Mesta.
The panchayat secretary assured that the waste scattered in Verna and near a hotel in Arossim would be cleared shortly, but he was unable to give a time period for this garbage collection.
When contacted, Saldanha said she was busy till Christmas and that, she would respond to queries only after Christmas.
