Sacorda panchayat to charge all visitors Rs 10 garbage fee

Margao: The village panchayat of Sacorda officially implemented a garbage clearance fee of Rs 10 for tourists visiting popular destinations within its jurisdiction, effective April 1. The initiative targets visitors to the historic Mahadev temple at Tambdi Surla and various waterfalls in the region.
The new fee structure, which received prior approval from the director of panchayats, aims to address the significant waste management challenges faced by the panchayat at tourist hotspots. “The objective is to keep the places clean. The revenue generated by this initiative will be used towards the upkeep of all the locations where the tourist footfalls are high,” deputy sarpanch Shirish Dessai told reporters.
The panchayat set up a booth to collect the garbage clearance fees. Dessai said that the panchayat was now in the process of identifying more spots where garbage generation is significant so that the waste is collected regularly and deposited at waste segregation stations.
Despite introducing the fee, the panchayat acknowledges that the collected funds will only partially cover the extensive cleaning operations required. “Though we started with a minimal amount of Rs 10, the expenses towards maintaining cleanliness are so huge that despite the levy of garbage fees, the funds generated will not be able to fund the entire cleanliness operations,” Dessai explained.
The panchayat currently spends approximately Rs 6 lakh monthly on waste management throughout the village, with nearly half allocated to the Tambdi Surla area alone. The remote location of the temple, situated about 16km from the panchayat house, necessitates deploying vehicles and workers at least four times monthly for garbage collection.
Panchayat officials believe the cleanliness initiative will ultimately benefit tourism by maintaining the pristine condition of the heritage sites and natural attractions in the village.