TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council on Tuesday resolved to outsource door-to-door waste collection in the city, even as the sanitary and the technical sections came under fire from the city fathers for its inefficiency and its failure to collect fees from hotels and restaurants since the last two years.
At the Council meeting held this evening, the civic body decided to outsource waste collection door-to-door after conducting a survey. “We will compile the data before tendering and outsourcing the waste collection door-to-door,” informed Municipal Chief Officer Sandhya Kamat after the meeting.
On the ticklish question of appointing Ahmedabad-based waste management expert P U Asnani as consultant for the civic body to certify bills raised by Fomento Green, Kamat said that the high-powered committee has asked the Civic body to appoint Asnani for a year as was decided by the Council in the past.
Municipal Vice-Chairperson Pratima Coutinho, however, said that the civic body should appoint the consultant after complying with the codal formalities.
Meanwhile, sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar came under fire from the city fathers, who expressed their disgust over the functioning of the sanitary section.
Matters came to a head when the sanitary inspector told the city fathers to record incidents of fire to dustbins and produce before him for action.
MMC Chairperson Arthur D’Silva demanded to know from Arabekar why his section has till date not levied any fees for waste collection from the hotels. He directed the sanitary inspector to immediately place the proposal for levying fees on the hotels.
Councilors also demanded to know who is pocketing the revenue from the hotels in lieu of collecting waste from the establishments. They told the sanitary inspector not to renew the hotel licenses if they don’t pay the waste collection fees.
The Technical Section also came under the scanner of the city fathers, when they demanded proper inspections of septic tanks and soak pits before giving them clearances.
The city fathers pointed out elected representatives are being taken to task by the citizens on overflowing septic tanks when they have no role in granting construction license.
