Betalbatim has taken one more step towards garbage management in the village, with the launch of Door to Door collection of segregated dry waste. The Panchayat has purchased a cycle rickshaw for this purpose.
In another initiative, to eliminate the menace of plastic carrybags, the Panchayat is distributing biodegradable cloth shopping bags to shops. These reusable bags are to be given to customers at a refundable deposit of Rs. 5/- per bag in lieu of the one-time use plastic carrybags. Earlier, the Panchayat had supplied sets of terracotta composters to households at subsidized rates and last year a recycling
station for dry waste had been set up.
The initiative by the Panchayat's Garbage Management Committee is actively supported by Betalbatim Civic & Consumer Forum and coordinated by the Panchayat's Waste Management Consultant Eng. Clinton Vaz. Mission Chaka Chak Goa chief and newly coopted PMC Councillor Patricia Pinto who was the Guest of Honour gave an inspiring talk and promised all help to the local body in its bold and proactive steps to tackle the garbage menace.
Goa Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan President Prof. Nelly Rodrigues congratulated the Betalbatim Panchayat for winning the Rs. 50,000/- State Award.Whilst complimenting the Sarpanch and members for their far-sighted initiative, she also lauded the efforts of the NGO in helping the Panchayat and assured all possible aid from the Zilla Parishad.
Chief Guest Mickky Pacheco expressed happiness with the Panchayat for tackling people's problems and announced that The Mickky Pacheco Charitable Trust which was distributing free exercise books to village school children, was prepared to subsidise the composters so that every village household could compost its wet garbage.
Earlier, the packed Social Club hall was given a power-point presentation on waste segregation and a demo on composting by Clinton Vaz.
