MARGAO, NOV 18
The garbage menace plaguing the Commercial Capital appears to be on the agenda of the newly-elected Chairperson and the City Fathers alike.
Sadly, all appears quite on the signing of the Concession Agreement with Fomento to set up a waste treatment plant at Sonsodo. Inquiries revealed that the draft agreement was dispatched to the Municipal lawyer nearly three months ago, and the copy is returned back to the Civic body for ratification.
That’s not all. Fomento has installed a Trommel at Sonsodo to screen plastic and other waste from the dumping yard. The facility is lying unutilized as the Civic body is yet to earmark a place for the disposal of the debris and other waste generated after screening by the Trommel.
If Fomento officials are to be believed, mounds of such waste generated at the dump yard is yet to be lifted away by the Civic body, hampering the day-to-day operations.
However, what has come as a big surprise is the inordinate delay by the Municipal lawyer to approve the draft Concession agreement.
Initially, the Municipal lawyer and the Civic body had raised certain queries on the mode of payment suggested by Fomento in the draft Concession agreement. But, Fomento’s have maintained that the query was addressed long ago and have no idea over the delay on the part of the Council to sign the concession agreement
Says Fomento CEO Shridar Kamat: “The company is all bracing up to place orders for the plant and machinery. We have identified agencies that would supply the machinery and is waiting for the Civic body to sign the Concession Agreement”.
In this connection, Kamat paid a courtesy call on the Margao Municipal Chief Officer Prasanna Acharya to find out the reasons for the inordinate delay and to convey the message that the agreement ought to be capped at the earliest to maintain the deadline of commissioning the waste treatment plant.
The MMC Chief Officer told Herald that the Civic body is pursuing with the Municipal lawyer the draft concession agreement and exuded confidence that the same would be returned to the body by next week.
