Bird-hits: Is govt waiting for deaths, asks Mauvin

VASCO : The bird-hit incident at Dabolim airport on Tuesday was a wake-up alarm for authorities and needs to be tackled on a priority basis.
Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho, whose constituency the Dabolim international airport is in, will be submitting a letter to chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and urban development minister Francis D’Souza reminding them of the assurance of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar of solving this issue on a priority basis.
Speaking to TOI, Godinho said, “It is like we are waiting for a disaster to happen for people to die, so that we may act. It is a grievous problem, it will be criminality by the authorities concerned if any such incident takes place.”
Godinho said he will mention all these points in his letter to the chief minister. In three review meetings by Parrikar, the garbage issue was given prime concern. The last meeting was held six months ago. Parrikar had assured of calling a special meeting on solving the garbage issue around the airport’s panchayats once-and-for-all, but, before that could happen, he was called to the Centre.
Hopes now lie on the new chief minister. Godinho said “Both my panchayats have no dumping areas, as there cannot be a garbage dumping zone within 10km radius of the airport. We were assured that after we conduct door-to-door collection of garbage, it will be lifted by the Mormugao municipality or there would be some tie-up with Sonsodo. But, the ground reality is that nothing has happened so far. Our case should be considered as special due to the sensitivity of the area.”
Despite awareness campaigns by local panchayat bodies and schools, people still dump garbage in open areas.
Right outside the boundary wall of the Indian Navy, one can find heaps of garbage dumped.
Both Chicalim and the Bogmallo panchayats have time and again requested for a dumping site at least in Verna industrial estate, but, requests have fallen on deaf ears.!The naval colonies too dump their garbage along the NH 17-B. The Air India 866 flight was taken to Mumbai at about 7am on Wednesday morning for repair. The aircraft’s second engine was badly damaged after a bird-hit early Tuesday morning on the runway, while it was set to fly to Delhi via Mumbai carrying 164 passengers including three infants.