TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Environment Minister, Alina Saldanha, Thursday said that the government will put its infrastructure in place before moving ahead with its plan of banning use of plastic bags in Goa.
“There is already legislation, which prescribes fines and imprisonment for offenders and we will implement this in a phased manner after the infrastructure for segregation and re-cycling is put in place.”
Presently drives are on to clear highways from plastic waste and schools have been roped in to make this initiative more fruitful, she explained. Plans are also in the offing to allot marks for this assignment after consulting the department of education.
“Students have to bring their garbage from home and segregate it in the four bin system provided in schools and arrangements are made to collect it,” said the minister. As many as 129 school clusters have been created for this initiative.
The chief minister also said that the problem of garbage collection and disposal at the local level was not being done and was causing embarrassment for the government where cases are pending on the issue before the High Court.
“We have already given clearance for a collection site and treatment plant and plan to have one each in North Goa, South Goa and for the whole State,” Parrikar said where segregation would also be carried out. He said that village panchayats and municipal bodies could form clusters to supply the garbage to the respective sites.
He agreed to a suggestion from former chief minister Digambar Kamat to have plastic waste collected throughout the highways passing through cities as well.
Calangute MLA strongly insisted on banning of plastic waste. He said, “Nearly 80 per cent of garbage is generated from plastic waste and there is urgent need to ban it.”
However Opposition leader Pratapsing Rane opined that plastic cannot be banned totally and the government should look at options of introducing bio-degradable plastic.
Alina told the House that plastic waste is being collected along NH-17 from end point of North Goa to end point of South Goa. What is collected is taken by re-cyclers.
Cashew plantations: Ms Saldanha also said that efforts were being made to rejuvenate cashew plantations under the Forest Development Corporation so as to ensure better produce in the years to come.
Saldanha was grilled Thursday by Opposition leader Pratapsing Rane who decried the pathetic condition of the existing plantations under the GFDC. He said “The plantations should be brought under the forest department or set up a department of Parks and Gardens to handle the plantations.” It was his view point that the corporation was running into losses and incapable of the handling the plantations.
Parikar refused to accept replies from the minister that the plantations hade outlived their yielding stage. He further said that the plantations are not being maintained and could be compared with those in private properties which were in better condition.
Valpoi MLA Vishwajit Rane also said that the cashew plantations are being chopped for grafts, owing to which there was destruction and poor yield. He sought to know what kind of a monitoring system the forest ministry had to prevent such destruction of cashew plantations.
Saldanha told the House that Rs 2.5 crore was being spent to rejuvenate the plantations with high yielding varieties. She said that the plantations were auctioned once in five years and was a source of livelihood for villagers in the surrounding areas.
St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh also urged the minister to ensure that there was no illegal distilling of feni from the plantations which would affect the traditional feni distillers.
