|
| | | | | Comments On News Reports | | | Re: [Goanet] COLUMN: PSPCB - a defunct board
----- Original Message -----
From: "floriano"
To: ; "Goa's premiere mailing list,estb. 1994!"
Cc: "Nisser Dias"
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 7:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] COLUMN: PSPCB - a defunct board
By God ! Nisser, you have painted a bleak picture of Goa and Goans.
Do you mean to say that citizens must check-out if hotels are doing their
jobs, that the contractors are doing their jobs ? And what about the
fattened PIGS that we have elected and are sitting in the posh offices in
the Secretariat and Corporations?? They do not have duties to observe what
is happening to Goa and Goans and take a corrective action?
If the Benaulim and Colva people sat in the secretariat and corporation
offices, there would be no need for these elected PIGS who do not even do
the basic honorary job of consuming and clearing the shit.
I have always said that Politics runs our lives. It is clear from your piece
that we have left it to the PIGS.
Time for Goans to fall behind PPS to iron things out if they are smart enough to realize the impact of this absolute arnarchy in governance.
Cheers
floriano
from PPS to PPS
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org
PSPCB - a defunct board
By Nisser Dias
nisserdias at gmail.com
SMS to 9422437029
In recent weeks the famous decades old Colva creek, seems to have got
some attention from the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), hold
on, hold on to your horses, the members of the board have not yet woken
up from their slumber, they have been roused from hibernation by the
Colva Civic forum by splashing some of the sewage water that is being
let out in the creek by unscrupulous restaurant owners, who have been
allowed to set their shop at the edge of the creek and others on the
periphery of it.
For the last decade, itself print and electronic media has highlighted
numerous times that the creek was being used as open air soak pit
besides other solid waste also being dumped in the creek, but it did not
seem to have got the attention of the defunct board, but as the
situation worsened and the Colva Civic forum upped their ante, did the
members of the board come running and pretended to show that they cared.
I was aghast when they made comments to the media that they were
surprised to realize that either the restaurants did not have a
treatment plant or that it did not function.
Before I get deeper into the muck that is let out in the Colva creek,
let me say that this is just the tip of the iceberg as the entire state
of Goa which is one of the world’s top tourist destination has been
turned into a huge garbage dump. 90 percent of hotels starting from star
hotels to down the line to the likes of plain eateries and ‘Ros Omlette’
gaddas let their sewage, waste and untreated water either into the sea,
rivers, lakes, springs, creeks, ponds, storm drains, fields and low
lying areas.
In the case of Colva creek, in the early eighties the government in a
bid to give a fillip to tourism by providing some facilities for the
tourist built the structures along the creek to house entrepreneurs like
pharmacies, handicrafts, clothes. Infact the cabinet had passed a
resolution not to allow any sale of liquor in these stalls. But in the
nineties with the degeneration of politicians and public morality,
entrepreneurs including drug peddlers having close connection with the
local MLAs and ministers were allowed to subvert the cabinet decision
and set up bar and restaurants in stalls not designed for restaurant. As
of today, in some of these restaurants, the kitchens are situated where
toilets were designed.
Moreover, even liquor is being sold illegally as well as legally and
with the advent of the present MLA and tourism minister, rule of law in
Colva has gone for a toss. The Tourism minister first decision after his
first election was to facilitate legal sale of liquor to his favourite
restaurateur, who runs the famous nightspot in Colva. Once this was
achieved, the restaurateur who allegedly has a shady past and has been
recently in news for being involved with the minister in casino brawls
and stoning of the house of Calvert Gonsalves - the director of
controversial audio CD “Dogui Bodmas” procured permission from the
excise department to sell liquor beyond the permissible time of 11.00pm.
And of course many a time the minister himself is present late nights
eating, drinking and also inhaling the stink from the creek and worse,
still saying that he is proud of his development in his constituency.
That aside, Goa’s 104 kilometer coastal stretch is lined with starred
hotels, in the premises or rather the properties of these hotels it is a
different environment spic and span confines of the hotel and neatly
manicured lawns and stretches of lovely landscapes, however it is these
same hotels which are as guilty as their garbage contractor of polluting
our water bodies, fields, littering our roadsides and turning Goa in a
huge garbage dump.
The hoteliers have to be held responsible for the mess firstly because,
they try to cut cost by under utilizing their treatment plant and in the
bargain they lay a sewage pipe underground leading the sewage and
untreated water directly into the sea, this has been brought to the
notice of the authorities including panchayat bodies in number of
villages but no action has been initiated against the erring hotels.
Secondly wet waste that is biodegradable waste (Kitchen waste, leftover
food etc) is not recycled into compost instead it is handed over to the
garbage contractors directly and this activity is being carried out
under the cover of darkness, thus allowing the garbage contractors to
dispose bags of garbage in the fields, water bodies and roadside thereby
polluting the atmosphere.
Villagers of Benaulim have undertaken a campaign to maintain vigil in
the area to nab garbage contractors who use this method to dispose the
garbage in their village, though it is good initiative, much more needs
to be done. Firstly villagers of all the villages should meet with the
hoteliers and try to understand the criteria they follow while tendering
the job of lifting garbage. It should be made mandatory for the hotels
to check the garbage site of the contractor and the machinery he uses to
treat the garbage. Secondly it must be impressed upon the hoteliers that
lifting of garbage from their premises must be done in broad day light
in proper compactors. Thirdly villagers must volunteer to accompany the
compactors or garbage trucks from the hotels directly to the garbage
site. This goes as far as wet waste is concerned.
As far as the sewage is concerned the GSPCB should not stop at checking
restaurants in Colva itself, it should immediately carry out inspection
of the treatment plants of all the hotels in the state and if some are
found dysfunctional, the concerned hotels should be penalized and
ordered to stop operation till the treatment plants are made functional.
But do the members of the board have the teeth to do it is a question
mark, they would probably send a letter to the hotels informing them of
an inspection within a fortnight, giving ample of time for repair, then
visit the hotels as a eyewash and experience real hospitality.
So can we really trust the Goa State Pollution Control Board to stop
pollution and degradation of our environment, the answer is very
obvious, because in its own backyard, that is Patto - Panjim which is
said to the Nariman Point of Goa stinks, bags filled with remnants of
chicken from slaughter stalls are dumped in the mangroves near Panjim
bus stand, construction material and garbage dots the Panjim – Old Goa
by-pass, mounds of pre-mixed concrete is dumped by the roadside at
various places. The masses can see and have to inhale the stink, but
nothing will make members of the board get off their chairs and use the
stick. (ENDS)
|
|
| LIFE LINE |
Goa Su-Raj Party has been in existence since 31/08/2000.
|
|
|
