www.digitalgoa.com/pondascan
vol. I Issue No. 1 Ponda Pages 12
1 to 31 August 2014
st
Garbage Disposal Plant:
Stinking issue of temple town
By Suraj P. Kaisuvker
Ponda: The proposed Garbage
treatment project of Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) at Kerye in Curti-Khandepar village jurisdiction is
running through rough waters with
rising opposition from the CurtiKhandepar villagers.
The present Council of PMC has
proposed a ‘Waste-to-Power’ plant as
a complete solution to Ponda Talukas
garbage woes in January this year.
Around 10,000 square meter of land
from the Kerye plot is to be leased
to EAS Consultants for setting up a
garbage treatment plant. The project
is planned to be operational in Public
Private Partnership(PPP) mode.
“The Rs 50-crore plant will be
set up by EAS consultants at their
own cost. The company will recover
their money by selling the bye-products such as construction ingots and
power generated out of the waste
to the state government,” the PMC
chairperson Radhika Nayak said.
Ruling out any cause of environmental concerns the chairperson
further informed that the plant proposes to use ‘Plasma Gasification
and Melting’ a technology used by
advanced countries like Japan and
Hong Kong for garbage treatment.
“The technology is environmentfriendly and can treat un-segregated
garbage between 10 metric tonnes
to 50 metric tonnes per day. Given
the fact that Ponda taluka generates
about 12 metric tonnes of garbage
per day this will exactly serve our
purpose,” Nayak adds.
However, the locals are opposing the construction of the plant at
the Kerye tooth and nail. The CurtiKhandepar Villagers’ Gramsabha
has unanimously passed a resolution
Editorial
Ponda Scan –
Voice of Ponda
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opposing PMC’s proposed Garbage
treatment project, as they fear that it
will create multiple problems for the
residents of the area. Villagers feel
that due to the storage of garbage at
the plant prior to processing there
will be problems such as foul smell,
mosquito and housefly breeding .
Secondly the processing of garbage
at the plant may lead to release of
toxic wastes in the atmosphere causing health hazards.
On several occasions prior to this
PMC has tried its hands on constructing a well-sophisticated garbage
treatment plant at the site purchased
by the PMC way back in 2003-04
at Kerye. However the civic body
could not go ahead beyond construction of a compound wall round the
property since last six years.
The PMC has land admeasuring
18,200 sq mts at Kerye –Khandepar
village. The High Court of Bombay
had permitted the Ponda civic body
in 2008 to erect a garbage treatment
plant on this land. But due to pressure and opposition from the people
PMCs efforts have not borne fruits
as on now.
PMC chairperson Sanjay M Naik
made the first attempt to tackle the
garbage menace in 2008. A PMC
team even visited a garbage treatment plant in Nasik set up by Bhartiya Technology, Indore then. After
getting convinced that it would suit
the town of Ponda, perfectly the
PMC had talks with the company to
set up a similar unit here.
Later in July 2012, during the
term of Rukmi Dangui as PMC
chairperson, the council had planned
to set up a 30 metric tonne garbage
disposal plant at the cost of rupees
8.97 crore on the land at KeryeKhandepar. PMC had also sought intervention of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to fund the plant from
the Municipal administration. This
efforts also failed to gain fruits as the
cont on pg 6
e, at Digital Goa, are extremely
delighted to bring before you
the first issue of Ponda Scan – Goa’s
first taluka newsletter.
Digital Goa has its presence on
Goa’s media scene for last 12 years
with its various successful print and
digital media ventures. Our SMS
news service has set new benchmarks
in objectivity and independent reporting in Goa.
It was always our endeavor to reach
out to the people of Goa at the grass
root level. Ponda Scan – dedicated to
the people of Ponda taluka will help
us fulfill this dream of ours. We want
Ponda Scan to be truly a mouthpiece
of the people of Ponda taluka especially of the voiceless masses.
We assure you that Ponda Scan
will not only represent the aspirations
of the people of Ponda but will act as
an catalyst in the all round development of Ponda taluka.
We will consider ourselves fortunate if this small step of ours brings
about some improvement in the infrastructure of Ponda taluka as well as
lives of the common men.
We appeal to each and every concerned citizen of Ponda to use the
platform provided by Ponda Scan to
highlight the genuine issues of Ponda
taluka and make constructive suggestions towards resolving them. Together, lets make our Ponda taluka a
better place to live in.
- Niraj Naik