Villagers accuse municipality of violating 2009 court affidavit on free waste treatment
Ponda: The Curti Khandepar panchayat on Sunday resolved to file a contempt of court petition against the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) for allegedly refusing to lift and treat garbage generated in the panchayat area.
The resolution was unanimously passed at the gram sabha held in Curti.
Sarpanch Nilkant Naik said that in 2009, the PMC had given an affidavit to the court, agreeing to lift and treat garbage from Curti Khandepar free of cost, following the setting up of a garbage treatment facility within the panchayat limits. However, the municipality has now asked the panchayat to manage its own waste, violating the earlier assurance, he said.
Naik also said the PMC recently sent a letter requesting that labourers be provided to segregate waste at the material recovery facility at Khandepar. This came after repeated communication from PMC asking the panchayat to treat its own waste.
Senior panch member Bhika Kerkar said that over the years, the municipality had gradually pulled out of its responsibility. Initially, PMC had provided plastic bags, collected waste, and transported it using its rickshaw. Eventually, it stopped each of these services and asked the panchayat to transport its garbage to the Saligao plant.
Kerkar said this move was unjust since the treatment facility is located in Khandepar within the panchayat’s jurisdiction. He recalled that residents had protested and approached the court at the time of its establishment. The municipality had then promised to treat the village waste free of cost. Based on this promise, the panchayat did not pursue a separate treatment project and even the current plant being set up by the panchayat is located within the same facility, he said.
Kerkar said that any withdrawal from this responsibility would amount to contempt of court. Following his statement, villagers supported legal action and passed a resolution for filing a contempt petition.
The panchayat also resolved to write to the Electricity Department seeking an explanation for setting up a transformer under the Tribal Sub Plan in an area with no tribal households. Villagers alleged that Rs 74 lakh from the fund was misused for
non-tribal beneficiaries.
Another resolution called for cleaning and repairing the footpath near the Khandepar High School, which has become overgrown with bushes.
At the conclusion of the gram sabha, local resident Shankar Naik felicitated the sarpanch with a flower bouquet for acting against an encroacher occupying 1,500 sq m of panchayat
land in Curti.
