SOIRU VELIP | NT Staff Reporter
With no clarity on which agency should continue with the collection and segregation of waste from the roadsides in the state, the drive has become an ‘orphan’ of sorts.
Over two years back, the drive was started by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) to collect and segregate plastic and dry waste from the national, state and district highways. Unpaid bills of the contractors involved in the drive have slowed down the waste collection process resulting in garbage accumulating along the state’s major roads.
Officials from the science and technology department and the GSIDC said that the state government needs to take a decision on the drive so as to streamline it to make Goa a garbage-free place. Solid waste management cell, which has been formed under the science and technology department, is a monitoring agency for waste collection drives.
It is learnt that bills of the contractors are pending before the GSIDC due to non-availability of funds. Admitting that bills of the contractors are pending, managing director of GSIDC Sanjit Rodrigues said that there is no clear-cut direction as to under which department the provision of funds is being made for the drive. He further said that till date GSIDC had been managing the funds on its own.
Director of science and technology department Levinson Martins said that after two years of the drive, last month the GSIDC sent it a letter asking for provision of funds for the scheme. He, however, said neither his department has handed over the control of the drive to GSIDC nor has the state government taken any decision in this regard. “I told the GSIDC if the government takes decision in this regard, then my department can make payment to the contractors designated on the job,” said Martins.
Another official from the science and technology department said that his department’s role in the drive is limited to making policy and monitoring to get the waste collected. When further inquired, it was revealed that a high-powered committee has been constituted by the government under the Chief Minister to take decisions on fast track. However, this committee hardly meets.
According to sources, the contractors collect around 1.5 tonnes of dry and wet waste each from the roadsides covering a distance of 296.2 kilometers. When the drive was launched in 2013, six zones were marked for collection of the waste from the national, state and district highways. However, after the tenure of the initial contractor ended, GSIDC reduced the zones to three – north, central and south – and awarded the contract to two contractors in February 2015 who are presently engaged in the collection and segregation of the waste.
In October, the contractor, BVG India, Bangalore, submitted a bill of Rs 36 lakh for collection of waste in north zone and Rs 41 lakh for central zone. The other contractor, Mahalsa Services, Verna, has not yet submitted its bill.
Collection enclosures have been set up at various points on the highways and these are meant to stack the waste collected along the roadsides. The waste stacks are later picked up by the designated contractor’s labourers once a week or fortnight and transported to the bailing station at Karapur in Bicholim. Later, the waste is sent to a cement kiln in Karnataka. When this reporter travelled along many of the routes having the enclosures, it was noticed that the enclosures are regular solid waste bins with biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste dumped all around.
Rodrigues said that many people including hoteliers and shack owners dump their mixed garbage at these enclosures during night time thus messing up the enclosure area. He said that he had informed about it to the science and technology department and Goa State Pollution Control Board. However, no action has been taken by any agency. “Mixed garbage is being dumped at Cortalim, Verna, St Cruz and some other places near the collection enclosures which creates a major problem. We have asked for deputation of police personnel at these sites during night time to nab the culprits. But action is not being taken by any agency,” said Rodrigues.