VASCO: The crucial meeting called by Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) Chairperson Lavina D’Souza on Monday saw many MMC councillors and supervisors complain about non-cooperation by citizens and Vasco market vendors.
The complainants stated that municipal authorities were working hard to ensure that Vasco became a garbage-free city, but could not complete the task as the citizens and vendors threw garbage in open spaces and not the dustbins provided to them.
MMC Vice Chairperson Tara Kerkar and some of the councillors expressed deep concern about the overflowing heaps of garbage at many spots in the municipal jurisdiction despite MMC’s efforts to make Vasco garbage-free.
“Our staff is working very hard to ensure that the city and all 20 wards remain garbage-free. However, our street corners and vacant sites by the roadside continue to be the targets of litterbugs, who are clearly unwilling to help MMC in the door-to-door garbage collection drive. Unless citizens and vendors in the Vasco markets wholeheartedly cooperate with the MMC, I don’t think its plans will see fruition,” said MMC Chairperson Lavina D’Souza.
According to MMC Municipal Engineer Vishnu Naik, the Mormugao municipality began door-to-door garbage collection in earnest several months ago. However, as the days went by, the entire system started crumbling. He said, “All this happened because people started refusing to support MMC, thereby defeating the whole purpose of garbage collection in a systematic manner. Therefore, we have to go back to the people and ask them to support MMC.”
It was also brought to everyone’s notice that people were dumping waste by the roadside or in open spaces as there were no dustbins around. The MMC will now monitor such areas to ensure that this hurdle in their plans to make Vasco garbage-free is removed.
