The Hindu 22.07.2009
Garbage lies uncollected in Thrissur for the seventh day
Staff Reporter
— Photo: K. K. Najeeb
HAZARDUOUS: Residents helplessly watch as water seeping from waste flows near their house in Lalur, Thrissur, on Tuesday.
Thrissur: As efforts to pump out waste water from the flooded trenching ground of Lalur dump yard continues, waste disposal from the Corporation areas was disrupted for the seventh consecutive day on Tuesday.
The entire city has rotten garbage lying scattered. Overflowing garbage bins and heaps of waste pose a serious health hazard for city dwellers. Intermittent showers worsened the condition.
Meanwhile, Lalur residents reiterated their stand that until the Corporation and the authorities found a lasting solution to their problem, no vehicle would be allowed to dump waste at Laloor.
An estimated 160 tonnes of waste is generated in the Corporation limits every day. It is dumped at Lalur. Kudumbashree workers dump an additional 25 tonnes there every day.
“Tonnes of the hazardous hospital waste too is dumped here everyday. This is a fight by people who live dangerously close to the waste,” said T. K. Vasu, chairman of the Lalur Malineekarana Virudha Samara Samithy. The dump yard, he alleged, posed a threat to the environment and their health. Meanwhile, District Collector V. K. Baby asked the Pollution Control Board and the Clean Kerala Mission to submit an urgent report on the measures to address the problems at Lalur.
At the meeting, attended by the Environmental Engineer of Kerala State Pollution Control Board T. Chitra Kumari, Clean Kerala Mission Director Ajaykumar Varma and Corporation Secretary M. R. Abhilash, the District Collector urged officials to submit the report within a day considering the seriousness of the problem.
Assistance and directions would be given to the Corporation on the basis of the report, the Collector said.
The BJP on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the Corporation office by performing a symbolic Vavu Bali condemning the alleged inefficiency of the Corporation in handling the waste disposal issue.