MARGAO: A day after The Goan exposed Margao Municipality’s Swachhata in the commercial capital, the Municipal babus and the City fathers got the private garbage contractors to clean up a couple of black spots dotting the city.
A host of questions, however, remains unanswered – How did the accumulated waste at the blackspots escape the attention of the private garbage contractors and the Municipal babus, more so when the Margao Municipality is spending a whopping ₹5 crore on the two private agencies engaged for door-to-door waste collection?
A host of questions are being asked
That’s not all. Are the private garbage contractors not duty-bound to clear the waste as part of their routine duties and functions? And, how come the Margao Municipal Council cleared the payment of bills of the garbage contractors when the contractors have been found wanting in complying with the terms and conditions of waste collection?
Well, taking cognizance of the story carried by The Goan on Gandhi Jayanti, Margao Municipal Engineer Deepak Desai got his act together and ensured that the black spot at the entrance to the railway footbridge at Calconda and the area below the Cine Lata footbridge was cleared of waste.
The Municipal engineer, however, may have to answer a question or two – how come the technical section has been clearing the payments of the garbage contractors when it is an open secret that the blackspots have been playing host to waste for a long time now?
Inquiries by The Goan have revealed that the work of the contractors includes sweeping, lifting of garbage, cleaning work, door-to-door collection of garbage, cleaning of drains, lifting of two-wheelers, etc. If sources are to be believed, the garbage contractors are also duty-bound to undertake the work assigned by the Municipal Chief Officer and the engineers.
Why there is still no systematic mechanism?
The question that remains unanswered is why there’s still no system or mechanism in place wherein the garbage contractors handle the waste at the black spots and other places when the agreement mandates them to clear the waste.
This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that the civic body had been engaging the services of the two agencies for over three years now, and had granted an extension to the contractors for their “dedicated” service in the door-to-door waste collection.
Sources in the corridors of the civic body wondered whether the Municipal technical section had at any time sought inputs from the field staff, including the supervisors, to check and verify the work executed by the garbage collection agencies. “The issue highlighted by the media has only brought to the fore the question there’s no in-built mechanism in place to certify that the agencies are complying with the conditions in the work order”, remarked a civic official.
