The Hindu             29.11.2013

Civic agencies told to act against illegal slaughtering

R. Sivaraman

The National Green Tribunal, Southern Bench, on Thursday, directed the Chennai Corporation and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to take immediate action to stop illegal slaughtering in the city.

The Bench passed the interim order on an application filed by People for Cattle in India represented by its trustee, G. Arun Prasanna, who sought to ban illegal slaughterhouses.

In his application, Mr. Prasanna listed around 20 places in the city where illegal slaughtering took place. In someareas of the city, the illegal activity had been taking place adjacent to meat shops. Such acts caused severe damage tothe environment, he said.

“The entire act of slaughtering affects the environment as it is happening in places which are not approved and which neither have proper waste treatment plants nor freezer facilities. Such places are unhygienic and slaughtering of infected cattle was done without knowledge,” he said.

The animal welfare organisation said the authorities had been careless and negligent, failing to take any kind of action to avert damage caused due to illegal slaughtering.

When the matter came up for hearing before the Bench on Thursday, Kaushik Narain Sharma, counsel for the applicant, requested the Tribunal to pass an interim order to ban illegal slaughterhouses.

He also said, activists had found, as per a recent survey, illegal slaughtering was happening in 55 places in the city.

The Bench, comprising its judicial member, Justice M. Chockalingam, and expert member, R. Nagendran, said, “There is no impediment felt by the Tribunal to issue direction to the Chennai Corporation and TNPCB to take immediate action and also steps to stop illegal slaughtering in the city of Chennai.”

Stressing that punitive action must be initiated against the violators, the Bench directed the authorities of the Corporationand TNPCB to file reports in the next hearing on December 12.

The animal welfare activist also argued that as per information provided by the district environmental engineer (DEE), Chennai, the Corporation’s slaughterhouses in Saidapet, Villivakkam and Pulianthope were illegal. The DEE had issued show-cause notices to them.

Corporation slaughterhouses in Saidapet, Villivakkam and Pulianthope were found to be illegal.

The Times of India            28.11.2013 

Corporation to outsource conservancy works in 18 wards

TRICHY: The Trichy Corporation has decided to outsource the conservancy work of its 18 wards to private parties. On Wednesday, it passed a resolution during the corporation council meet to privatise the entire work due to acute shortage of workers.

The corporation has been facing shortage of workers in all the wards. The 18 wards are as follows. Chatiram Bus Stand, 8, 9; Sri Rangam wards 7, 28, 29, 61, 62, 64 and Gandhi Market; Ariyamangalam wards 35, 36, 37,38,39,63 and 65; the Central Bus Stand; Golden Rock Zone; and 40, 41 and 45 in K. Abishekpuram zone.

According to the corporation officials, conservancy works like sanitary operations and other cleaning works are already being carried out in smaller scale at locations like bus stands and markets by private operators. This would be the first large scale initiative. As part of their work, the private operators would be carrying out the solid waste management by segregating the degradable and non-degradable waste. They would also be cleaning the roads in all the wards using advanced machines and would also ensure that there is a constant flow in the storm water drains.

Though the move was in consideration for quite some time, it was finally passed on Wednesday after facing some hurdles from certain ward members. Three ward councillors belonging to the DMK and Congress opposed the move stating that privatisation will not help in making the locality better. They said that similar measures taken in the past have failed in a big way. One such example is the Central Bus Stand, they pointed out.

One of the congress councillors Hema, whose ward will soon be privatized, said that the officers belonging to the private agencies do not heed to the words of the councillors in cleaning works.

However, corporation authorities said that rise in population, shortage of conservancy workers and limitations in hiring, and expansion of the corporation limits has increased the need to rope in private parties. According to the new policy, the private agency would be cleaning nearly 21 km (bus route) and the garbage would be transported to the dumping grounds with the help of their workers.