Margao municipality's garbage sentinel scheme tapering off

Margao: After initial public enthusiasm for the garbage sentinel scheme, which was launched by Margao municipal council ( MMC ) on July 4, the response has now begun to taper off.

Chief officer of MMC, Siddhivinayak Naik, told TOI that while the scheme had received a lot of appreciation from the public, sentinels haven’t been actively reporting offences of late.

“The dedicated WhatsApp number for uploading photos and videos of offences is often found flooded with messages either complimenting the MMC for the garbage drive or providing suggestions for improvement. Irrelevant messages and forwards are also found posted there,” Naik said.

Delayed response by the police to MMC’s request to identify offenders has also put brakes in the civic body’s plans to rein in violators. Naik said that most of the photos or videos received from sentinels did not clearly show the face of violators or the registration number of vehicles involved in the offence. “Of the few clear cases we have received, we had sent registration numbers of vehicles to the police and the RTO to identify vehicle owners so that we can impose fines. However, we are yet to receive any reply from the police,” Naik said.

After the scheme was launched, 12 people took on the role of sentinels on the very first day itself. However, the response waned as days passed.

The garbage sentinel scheme, aimed at streamlining the municipality’s garbage management plan, enables any person to report violation of illegal garbage disposal to the municipality. A photo or a video clip of the violation could be sent on the WhatsApp number 8390208406 by providing the sender’s name, address, age as well as date, time and place of the offence. While the violator would be fined Rs 5,000, the garbage sentinel reporting the violation would get Rs 1,000. The rewards were to be presented once the violators were identified and penalized.

Savio Coutinho of the Shadow Council, told TOI, “The scheme was hurriedly announced without factoring in larger implications. With no rules or guidelines governing the scheme, it is bound to be ineffective for recovering the fines. Secondly, even considering the MMC challans a violator, he can always challenge it and refuse to pay,” Coutinho said.

However, Vinayak Mordekar, a city-based businessman and social worker, sounded optimistic. “If the MMC is now getting lesser number of complaints, it could mean that the scheme has proved to be a deterrent and is serving its stated objective. Remember, unlike the traffic sentinel scheme, wherein sentinels capture the violator breaching traffic rules in the open, people dump garbage in the open on the sly which makes the task of a garbage sentinel that much difficult.”

Chairperson of MMC, Babita Angle Prabhudessai, at a recent meeting of the council, had suggested that the scheme be modified to make it mandatory for sentinels to register themselves with MMC.