ELVINO ARAUJO
At a time when the entire country is following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Campaign Clean India), the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) prefers to ignore the silt that has been dumped by the roadside for the past four months.
An exasperated MMC Chief Officer Megnath Porob has now rebuked his MMC staff as being “very lethargic”, after workers have ignored his directives for the past three weeks to remove the silt from the road.
The MMC has failed to remove the silt that was excavated from nullahs and dumped along the roadside near Machado Building in Ward 9 of Baina.
As part of pre-monsoon works, local councillor Saifullah Khan had cleaned the nullah from his own funds in May, bringing much relief to local residents.
However, their happiness was short lived when residents realised that the silt, which was dumped by the roadside, had greatly reduced the width of the road and had posed a threat to motorists and pedestrians.
What also took many by surprise is that while opposition councillors have been complaining of step-motherly treatment by the ruling group of councillors, Ward 9 Councillor Saifullah Khan had been unable to remove the roadside silt, despite being in the ruling group.
“My ward has been neglected since the last few months and it was only after I pursued the matter with the MMC chief officer that some labourers were sent to my ward. However, they were promptly withdrawn within two days,” complained Councillor Nany D’Souza.
“My ward has overgrown weeds and if the MMC sends a weed cutter, they do not send labourers to clear the cut weeds. Most labourers are sent to the garbage treatment site to segregate the garbage. It is surprising that MMC labourers are being provided to the contractor appointed to segregate waste at the garbage treatment plant,” added D’Souza.
“When the rest of the state and the country is organising the Swachh Bharat and Nital Goem campaign, the MMC wrote to churches and other NGOs to organise cleanliness drives on October 2. But it is an irony that the MMC is dragging its own feet to clean their wards and remove the accumulated filth and garbage.”
“Many times, I have had to pay from my pocket to clear the garbage and other waste from my ward,” said D’Souza.
When contacted, Vasco Councillor Saifullah Khan said he had hired some labourers and had de-silted nullahs at his own cost since the MMC had failed to provide labourers.
“Time was running out and the monsoon was at the door step. Had I had not acted soon enough, my ward would have blamed me for not de-silting the nullahs before the monsoon. Even after de-silting the nullahs at my own cost, the MMC has failed to lift the silt and clear the road,” said Khan.
Added Vasco Councillor Tara Kerkar: “Even those wards of the ruling councillors are full of excavated silt and garbage, which has not been cleaned for the past several months. However, I get my ward cleaned every 15 days due to which there is hardly any garbage accumulation in the ward.”
When the issue of the roadside silt near Machado building was brought to his notice three weeks ago, Porob had summoned the municipal inspector and had directed him to clear the roadside mud.
But despite the directives, the silt has continued to remain by the roadside in Ward 9.
When informed that the workers had ignored his instructions, Porob said: “The MMC staff is very lethargic and many do not carry out their duties in time.”
Porob, however, failed to assure if a second set of orders would be issued to remove the roadside silt in Ward 9 or whether he would initiate any action against the municipal inspector for dereliction of duty.
