The Hindu                15.06.2013

Corporation fights hard to stop indiscriminate dumping of debris

Thursday’s debris dumping incident throws the spotlight
on the challenges the Coimbatore Corporation faces in tackling the
indiscriminate dumping of the building waste. Environment activists on
Thursday evening caught a tractor driver dumping debris along
Valankulam.

The move comes even as the Corporation
had earmarked places across the city for contractors to dump debris.
This was in April this year. The Commissioner, G. Latha, had said that
by giving contractors places to dump debris, the Corporation aimed at
preventing their dumping debris along water bodies and thereby protect
the water bodies.

After earmarking the places and
informing the public about the same, the Corporation had a meeting with
builders to seek their cooperation.

Not stopping with
the move, Ms. Latha formed zone-level committees comprising zonal
sanitary officers, assistant town planning officers, junior engineers
and sanitary inspectors to ensure that contractors did not dump debris
outside the earmarked places.

But in the past two months, the earmarked places did not get as much debris as they ought to.

The patronage has been average, says a source.

To
improve the debris management system, Ms. Latha has now proposed a
scheme wherein the civic body will partner the builders to collect
debris at demolition sites, transport them for manufacturing blocks to
be laid in pathways and gardens.

In this regard, Ms.
Latha said she had talked to the builders’ association. The civic body
would lease out a land on which the association could install the
machinery required to manufacture the blocks.

Sources
in the builders’ association confirmed the same and said they would
take a decision after talking to the association office-bearers.

Ms.
Latha said it would be a win-win situation for both the Corporation and
builders because the civic body would be able to stop dumping of debris
at water bodies and the association would get to utilise waste to
manufacture and sell blocks.

Meanwhile, following
Thursday’s incident, the Corporation lodged a complaint with the
Ramanathapuram Police, who have registered cases under Sections 277
(fouling water of public spring or reservoir), 290 (punishment for
public nuisance) and 430 (mischief by injury to works of irrigation or
by wrongfully diverting water) of the Indian Penal Code.

The punishment under the sections varies from a few months to five years with or without fine.

Ms.
Latha said that she planned to talk to Collector M. Karunagaran to
convene a meeting involving Revenue Department and police officials as
their help was required in tackling the debris dumping menace, for only
those two had powers to act against offenders.

The
Ramanathapuram Police said that they had arrested the tractor owner
Velumani under the aforementioned three sections. They were on the
lookout for the tractor driver.