TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The issue of garbage and the stench emanating from the garbage treatment site at Patto dominated the discussion at a CCP meeting held on Wednesday with the councillors representing the wards of Mala-Fontainhas and others raising issue with having to bear the stench day in and day out with no solution in sight.
The CCP has now resolved to use their site at Merces, behind the Heera Petrol Pump to dry the compost that has been generated through their composting of wet waste.
“The problem that the CCP is facing is that of volume. We have so much compost and no one is willing to buy it. We are willing to even deliver the compost free of cost to whoever is willing to buy it,” CCP Commissioner Sanjith Rodrigues told the meeting saying that the only way out was to use the site there to dry and turn the compost given that there was no other area available.
Other councillors expressed concern that if the residents of Mala and other areas affected by the stench take to the streets in protest against the CCP, they would be stuck.
“Let it not reach a stage where the the people have no option but to come on to the streets. Let us rectify the problem even before it comes to that,” Rudresh Chodankar said.
Opposition councillors including Shubham Naik and others had raised the issue at the meeting.
In another decision the CCP has drafted a leave and licence agreement that will be signed with the tenants of the New Municipal Market which according to the Mayor, will bring in “crores of Rupees” into the kitty of the Corporation.
The leave and licence deed will be executed for a period of three years beginning October 1, 2013 for the purpose of recovering licence fees from the licensees as per the list prepared by the GSIDC. It was also decided that the arrears of licence fees for the period from August 2003 to September 2013 be recovered in one or two installments and a clause be incorporated in the present deed.
Mayor wants land at Merces as exhibition ground
The Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado has written to the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar suggesting that the comunidade land at Merces which was used for a BJP rally be made into an exhibition ground for Panjim city “on the lines of Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, where parking and traffic problems rarely occur.
The Mayor brandished the letter after the councillors raised the issue of traffic congestion in Panjim city especially those arising out of exhibitions.
Furtado said that he had also suggested that land such as military headquarters, the Junta House godowns, PWD garage opposite Don Bosco, and Massano de Amorim be vacated for parking, besides also moving the government offices either to Patto or Panjim.
