Karkala: The Karkala Town Municipal Council (TMC) received clean India title on January 22, 2016 during a glittering ceremony in Mumbai. The chief officer instrumental in setting up Biogas plant accompanied by the TMC president received the award on that occasion.
Karkala TMC was primarily chosen for the award for implementing cleanliness drive and effective utilisation of waste in its territory. Karkala TMC has 23 wards with a population of 25,800 people in an area covering 23,000 Sq. Km area. It generates 6 tonne of wet waste out of total 10 tonne.
Effective utilisation of wet waste, keeping the surroundings clean and generating biogas for public use were among the primary objectives behind setting up a new biogas plant in the town limits. Accordingly, the foundation stone for the plant was laid by the then Urban Development Minister Vinayakumar Sorake on Sept 14. It is gathered that Chief Officer in TMC during that period Rayappa had evinced a lot of interest and played a vital role in project’s progress. The biogas plant project with an estimated cost of Rs 32 Lakh was completed in a quick time. It was formally inaugurated by the present minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Affairs and Sports Pramod Madhwaraj, who is also the district in charge minister on January 9, 2017.
The plant was strategically located near Shabari Ashram, a residential hostel for post metric girls to ensure seamless supply of cooking gas for students in the hostel. Necessary connections were made to ensure 24/7 supply of gas to the residential hostel building. By the time of inauguration, Chief Officer Rayappa had moved to Kaup TMC and his position was taken over by Mabel D’Souza. The plant financed under the 13th finance programme is not set in motion even after three months of inauguration for reasons unknown.
When contacted, Chief Officer Mabel D’Souza informed about the pending works. Contractors have been instructed to complete them failing which legal action will be initiated against them, she said.
The waiting period will linger on but certainly the initial enthusiasm shown by Karkala TMC has waned resulting in the delay in making biogas plant operational.
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