the margao Municipal Council (MMC) is embarking on yet another attempt to collect garbage from the city hotels directly. The council tried a similar exercise five years ago but nothing much came out of it.

While the state urban development ministry intends to start the project from April 1, 2002, the hoteliers have said that they need some more time to study the modalities of the payment of collection fees. At a meeting held recently, the ministry assured the hoteliers that as the plan would be implemented on a no-profit, no-loss basis, hoteliers would not have to bear a very heavy burden.

Citing the case of Panjim where the door-to-door trash collection from hotels is being done successfully, a ministry spokesperson laid stress on the importance of clean environment to woo tourists. He also said that MMC would introduce two more compactors to boost its capacity to collect and dispose of the waste in the city.