MARGAO: Even as the smaller municipalities get set with their garbage treatment plants, the larger ones like Panaji and Margao, are still struggling to get their act together. The issue of the Margao Sonsoddo dump is even more ironic, as the head of the high powered committee, set up to monitor the project, is heralded by none other then the Chief Minister, who is also the local MLA.

As far as Margao is concerned it is a month since the civic body sent the draft concession agreement to its Panaji -based municipal lawyer, and the process to engage a consultant to monitor work of the plant and land fill site has also ground to a halt. Also the high-powered committee has not met for the past two months to take any decision on the consultant.
In Panaji, an area cannot be finalized to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. But in the smaller municipalities things are moving ahead, despite delays.  
The plant at Bicholim is already in operation, and the Cuncolim plant is all set to begin operation, probably by early next month, municipality officials told media on Tuesday.
The chief officer, Mr Sanjeev Dessai said, “We are trying to inaugurate the plant by October 2,” and added that Cuncolim generates around 10 MT of garbage per day.
When the chairperson, Mr Devendra Dessai was asked about the delay, he said that there was an incident at the landfill site as well as some “technical problems” that had led to the delay in starting of operations at the plant. The Cuncolim garbage plant and the land fill - around 28,000 sq mts - are situated at the industrial estate and would have a plastic shredding machine, where all plastics like pet bottles would be sent and other plastics would be sold to rag pickers and the like.
All the organic material would be composited and sold as organic manure.
Initially when the garbage enters the site it would be segregated in organic and inorganic material.
At present the Cuncolim municipality is using another area to dump its daily garbage and this new landfill will only be used once the plant is inaugurated.
The plant is being built by a Thane based firm – Vikat Enterprises. This company has built and is operating the plant at Bicholim and is also building plants at Quepem, and Canacona. This puts the authorities in larger municipalities to shame and brings into sharp focus the politics that are involved in larger cities and municipalities.