The Margao Municipality started the door to door garbage collection around a year back but the entire system seems to be a mess and is crumbling on a daily basis, irking Madgavkars. At every municipal meeting, the problem discussed is the failure of the collection drive. The problem began when the municipality eliminated all garbage bins in Margao, Mungul, Borda, Maddel, Aquem and Housing Board stating that the municipality will collect the garbage itself.
But while the bins were not there, the collection service went from bad to worse. The usual practice is that the municipal worker comes with a whistle to alert the residents that he/she is in the lane to collect the trash.
“The workers used to come at 7.30am and that was convenient for me to personally hand over the trash cans provided by the municipality to the municipal worker and take them and then move on to do other chores or proceed to work,” explains Lorna Dias from Nilu Apartments, Borda. She points out that the worker would then come at 8am delaying her to work and later post 8.30 am giving her no choice but to leave the covered trash can along the building stairs for the municipal worker.
“The worker comes anytime between 8.30 am to 11.30 am. But before him come the stray dogs and rip open the trash can, pull out all the garbage and dirty the entire building and the worker who comes so late in the day, won’t even take the leftover trash nor clear the mess,” explains Lorna.
The municipality has given two bins, a green one and a black one, one for dry waste and the other for wet waste. People who really care about the environment spend a lot of effort and time sorting their plastic, glass, papers and other recyclables in the dry bin while the wet waste is put out separately.
“I was so overwhelmed and then upset when the municipal worker on a daily basis picks both my bins and throws it all together in his collection bin mixing the dry and the wet and the whole sorting purpose is defeated,” asserted Kedar Dessai, a housing board resident who feels the garbage plant will be a farce if there’s no sorting done.
Fatorda MLA, Vijai Sardessai feels that the government and the Margao municipality are not open on the door to door collection drive.
“We as MLAs are not sure of who is the garbage contractor or municipal workers assigned for our ward. We get no report of collection and timings.” he explains.
But Margao Municipality Chairperson Arthur D’Silva had a different take on the matter. “The NGOs are protesting and not allowing me to increase that collection fee by even Re 01. How can we see success in the door to door collection? I plan to outsource it and let the trader charge a competitive amount but do a great job at garbage collection,” he said.
