Thanks to the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court’s intervention, the 191 village panchayats in the State are compelled to seriously take up the matter of garbage management. However, things appear to have slackened now as panchayats are sitting pretty having merely initiated temporary measures and authorities that were asked to monitor, are not following up on the task assigned to them!
The High Court had constituted a committee headed by Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) Managing Director Dr Levinson Martins to monitor the setting up of Material Recovery Facility (MRF) by panchayats.
“I submitted the committee report to the High Court about two years back,” disclosed Dr Martins, while revealing that at that time only 37 village panchayats had set up the MRF.
Following that report the High Court began taking up the matter seriously and passed severe orders against panchayat officials including sarpanchas and secretaries for their failure to set up MRF.
In view of the difficulties expressed by some panchayats, the High Court even allowed them to set up the MRF with two or more neighbouring panchayats coming together. However, at the present moment, nobody is in a position to provide figures of how many panchayats have actually set up the MRF.
“Some panchayats have made temporary arrangements and are in the process of setting up permanent MRF,” said Prasidh Naik, Deputy Director of Panchayats (South) while the Director of Panchayat Siddhi Halarnkar was not available for comments.
“The High Court is monitoring the issue and within the next two months, the report on how many panchayats have set up the MRF should be known,” said Adv Om D’Costa, who w as assisting Adv Norma Alvares in the matter.
It may be recalled that the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court, based on newspaper reports, had initiated a suo motu writ petition in the year 2007, which had 45 respondents led by the State government and Adv Norma Alvares was appointed Amicus Curiae.
Various other applications were added to this Writ Petition including a couple of contempt petitions and even one Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The High Court issued notices, forfeited deposits and even prohibited panchayats from issuing construction licences, which is the major source of revenue for panchayats, till the MRF was set up.
A deposit of Rs 90,000 of one of the panchayats in Salcete taluka was forfeited. Five panchayats namely Assolda, Xeldem, Morpilla, Naqueri-Betul, Chinchinim-Deussua and Seraulim were issued notices on November 18, 2022 for dereliction of duties, following which they set up the MRF.
Some panchayats like Sernabatim-Vanelim-Colva-Gandaulim more popularly called Colva panchayat, Agassaim or St Lawrence as it is also called, Arambol, Bhati and Sancoale ere prohibited from issuing construction licences. While this prohibition was lifted in two months for Sancoale panchayat, Colva panchayat till date cannot issue construction licences for any housing project having more than four units.
“The ban was lifted for Sancoale within two or three months as the Goa State Waste Management Committee endorsed before the court that the MRF was functioning in the panchayat,” said Adv Zeller D’Souza, who represented this panchayat along with another six panchayats in the matter.
Mismanagement of garbage in the past, where garbage was merely dumped instead of being treated scientifically, has created an aversion to the very term “garbage” amongst the Goan populace. The cesspool of garbage dump yards in the State, the classic example being Sonsoddo at Margao invokes the quip “we do not want another Sonsoddo” whenever the issue of setting up a garbage management facility comes up for discussion.
“This is primarily because people do not understand that MRF means treating the garbage and not merely dumping which led to the garbage hill being created at Sonsoddo,” said J D’Silva, convenor of Chandor-Cavorim Village Development Committee.
Given the present scenario where panchayats are sitting pretty having set up temporary facilities and while some even strategically foiling action against them, it is time that this issue is visited once again and a fresh report of how many panchayats have set up MRF is assessed by the High Court. Waste management is a critical issue and it needs to be addressed on a war footing.