The Hindu       21.07.2016 

Garbage poses health hazard to residents

Irregular clearance of garbage in various parts of the
district has been posing a serious health hazard for the past few months
resulting in foul smell. The garbage is not being cleared daily and
regularly but only on a weekly basis at several places, say the
residents.

While Karaikal is a municipal town, the
other major local bodies – Neravy, Nedungadu, Kottucherry, Tirunallar
and T.R. Pattinam — are commune panchayats in the district.

Given
the strong seasonal winds, the garbage is found strewn all around the
residential areas in the town as well as Kottucherry and Nedungadu.

The
worst-hit is the Nedungadu Commune Panchyat where the panchayat
workers, including the conservancy workers, desist from clearing the
garbage. The workers claimed non-disbursement of salary for the past few
months had forced them to resort to relay strike.

Jaisingh,
president of the Government Employees Federation, said that the workers
were left with no option but to resort to the strike.

He said that paucity of funds stood in the way for disbursing the salary to the employees.

There
has been an increase in the volume of garbage, particularly waste food,
meat, parotta and plastic waste, says N. Gandhirajan, Municipal
Commissioner, Karaikal.

He told
The Hindu
that the municipality handled 50 tonnes of solid waste daily, which was just 35 tonnes a couple of years ago.

“The increase in the number of residential colonies in the town has contributed to the rise in the volume of garbage,” he added.

Facing
the difficulty in segregating the degradable and non-degradable waste
materials, the municipality has planned to introduce door-to-door
collection of bio-degradable and non-degradable waste in a couple of
months, he added.

Polythene waste was a major problem in the town, partly due to the presence of a large number of bars.