MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai tersely asked Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo to look after his own constituency or backyard before venturing to comment on other places and sternly objected to his statement that MMC has failed to keep Margao and Fatorda clean.
Speaking to media persons, Dr Babita, who has just returned from sick leave, said, while Goa was known world over as a paradise on earth its reputation today is marred and is called the drugs and sex trade haven primarily because of what is happening in Calangute and Candolim.
“The minister would do well to first put his own backyard in place and rectify what is happening in Calangute and Candolim that is giving Goa a bad name before accusing us of failing to keep Margao and Fatorda clean,” she said.
Asserting that all the councillors are committed to keeping their areas clean, she said there were various factors responsible for the squalor found in the city primary of which was the dumping of garbage by people from neighbouring villages.
“Instead of making lop sided statement, the minister would do well to give us the permission to set up two garbage management plants we have proposed particularly as we are not asking for any funds from the government but are procuring them from our own funds,” she said.
She disclosed that the MMC Chief Officer had written to the government on 30th July proposing to purchase two garbage management plants using High Thermophilic Biomethanation technology with each plant costing around Rs. 1.99 crore.
She argued that since MMC was proposing to purchase these plants with its own funds there was no reason why the permission from the government is not given for nearly a month now.
The two plants are expected to tackle 10 tonnes of mixed waste each every day and are proposed to be used to deal with the garbage that is collected from the black spots where generally people from the neighbouring villages dump mixed garbage.
Reliable sources disclosed that even the Solid Waste Management Corporation is proposing to use the same technology for the garbage management plants it is setting up at Bainguinim, Verna and Cacora.
