Questions over Sonsodo bioremediation work

MARGAO

Mystery shrouds the bio-remediation work carried out at the Sonsodo waste dumping site last year as no agency is willing to shoulder the responsibility for engaging a contractor to unveil the nature and cost of the exercise.   

 While TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai had gone to the town saying the bio-remediation work at Sonsodo has cost the government a whopping Rs nine crore, agencies such as the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation and the Goa State Solid Waste Management Corporation have firmly denied having engaged any contractor at Sonsodo, leave alone making payments.  

When The Goan sought to know from GSIDC Manging Director Srinet Kothawale to shed light on the amount of money paid to the contractor to carry out the bio-remediation work at Sonsodo before the last monsoon, he said there’s no official records in the Corporation suggesting any work order issued to any contractor or the payments made to any agency.  

“Individuals had asked for information under the RTI on the agency engaged at Sonsodo and the payments made last year. We have dished out information that the GSIDC has neither engaged any contractor nor has any money being paid to any agency,” he said.   

 In fact, the GSIDC Managing Director, who has assumed office after work on the bio-remediation had started at Sonsoddo before the onset of monsoon last year, said he has not come across any records suggesting issuance of work order nor effecting the payments.   

 Incidentally, the Goa State Solid Waste management Corporation too has washed its hands off the controversy, with Managing Director Sanjit Rodrigues asserting that the Corporation has not paid any amount to any agency to bio-remediate the Sonsodo site.   

 Sanjit, who was heading the GSIDC when the Sonsodo bio-remediation project was taken up last year soon after the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar assumed office, said the government-appointed monitoring committee was initially seized of the matter, but the issue did not progress to the stage of making the payments to the contractor.   

 The Solid Waste Management Corporation MD, however, said the government is justified in discontinuing the bio-remediation project at Sonsodo for the simple reason that it cannot succeed at a live dump when waste is brought on a daily basis. “It is a sheer waste of money to go for bioremediation at a site where waste comes to the site everyday. Bio-remediation was done at Saligao, but there was a complete stop to the waste dumping. This did not happen at Sonsodo and hence the government decided against continuing the bio-remediation exercise,” Sanjit added.