PANAJI: Education minister Babush Monserrate has said that the integrated school complex planned at Cujira in Bambolim will get its independent garbage and sewerage treatment plants.

Monserrate had announced recently that two major organisations Dempo charitable trust and Alcon constructions have volunteered to develop the integrated school complex at their own cost of approximately Rs five crore and that the work was already in progress. The garbage and sewerage treatment plants will also be built by these organisations for the complex.

The integrated school complex is being planned to shift Panaji schools to ease congestion in the capital city during school hours. Also, the complex will provide students will facilities such as playground etc which are not available to them as schools are located in city area where there is a lack of space.

A total of 1.13 lakh sq m has already been acquired by the state government and marked for the purpose at Cujira in Bambolim. As the education minister has decided to increase the allocation of land to each school to 10,000 sq m from the previous 5,000 sq m, the Directorate of Education (DoE) is in the process of acquiring more land for the complex.

Efforts to acquire the neighbouring land owned by the Goa Medical College and hospital at the moment has already begun, sources informed. Two large playgrounds, a gymnasium, a common hall, a hi-tech laboratory and parking facility will also be built at the complex. All these facilities along with the internal roads will be provided by the Dempo and Alcon groups at the cost of Rs five crore.

With five to six schools placed in close proximity, a substantial amount of garbage and sewage will be generated at the complex. Therefore, a garbage treatment plant will also be set up to treat the waste and an independent sewerage treatment plant is also in the offing for the complex.

The financial support offered by the two organisations has been accepted to avoid the work on the complex from being delayed pending approval of government grants, the education minister clarified recently. The two organisations have discussed the proposal and the developmental works involved with the education minister and have submitted a letter to the government expressing their willingness to bear a cost of Rs five crore to develop facilities for the complex, sources said.

Five schools have been shortlisted to be allotted land in the complex. Each school will be provided 10,000 sq m of land each and the school managing committee will have to themselves construct buildings for the school. The education department will also offer loans for the purpose. Dempo college of arts and science will also be provided land in the complex as it is also located in a congested area in the capital city.

MARGAO: With a delay in finalizing a private party for solid waste management at Sonsoddo, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has decided to put in

place a team of workers to conduct daily segregation and composting.

The council had pinned its hopes on the party that is chosen - IL&FS and Fomento or Ramky - to start work at the earliest. But with it now deciding to hand over the process of finalization to the government, it appears that some more time will lapse until the selection process zeroes on either of the parties to handle the project.

The council earlier had 25 workers at the dumpyard, but their services were discontinued in May this year owing to the completion of 240 days of labour. Had they continued working, they would have been eligible for absorption on a permanent basis. What followed thereafter was the monsoon, when the segregation of waste took a beating. There is an estimated 6,000-tonne of fresh unsegregated garbage accumulated at the site since the last month.

The MMC had also given an undertaking to the high court on a petition by the Goa Foundation that it would take adequate precaution to avoid pollution of ground water and also submitted a time-bound solution to sort out its garbage woes. The petition had also sought a time-bound solution to the Sonsoddo waste problem, but the council failed to meet the August 31 deadline to finalize one the two parties that have bid for the project.

"We have decided to appoint 20 workers on daily basis at Sonsoddo,'' council chairperson Savio Coutinho said. "They are trained workers and know their job and so it is always better to entrust them with the task for quicker and better results,'' said sanitary inspector of the council Viraj Arabekar.

Coutinho also pointed out that the council was working on outsourcing the task of door-to-door garbage segregation to a private party for four wards south of the railway track. For this, the council would have to seek the nod of its councillors. The population of the locality sought to be taken up under the pilot project has a total population of around 12,000 and is described as a "neglected area.''

The segregation at source process, that would greatly facilitate work at Sonsoddo for better composting of waste, is mandated under MSW rules 2000 and at present is being conducted at the electricity workers' colony and at the housing board, Gogol.