Over the past few days, several Shiva temples in the city have been celebrating Panguni thiruvizha. Colourful and chaotic, the festivities have attracted lakhs of devotees, and brightened streets in several localities. But the huge crowds, to whom water, buttermilk and food was distributed by several residents, have also led to tonnes of garbage being strewn across streets.

Sources at the Chennai Municipal Solid Waste Pvt. Ltd (CMSW), a unit of conservancy agency Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd. said around 25 tonnes of waste had been cleared from Mylapore and Thiruvanmiyur alone. CMSW clears garbage from the Adyar, Teynampet and Kodambakkam zones

“Towards the evening, stepping on to the street is a risk, as there are mounds of food waste, plastic cups, dhonnai and Styrofoam cups and plates. While some devotees set an example and distributed butter milk in steel and re-useable plastic tumblers, there were some who gave spoonfuls in devotees’ hands,” said S. Manjula, a devotee, who was trying to catch a glimpse of the Arubathu Moovar procession of the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore on Monday.

CMSW officials said they had been unable to sweep or clear garbage during the day.

“Vehicles were allowed only after 11.30 p.m. when we started our work. We had 180 additional staff in three shifts to clear the garbage. We also placed 25 additional compactor bins and 35 smaller bins,” an official said.

A. Mahadevan, a resident, said that cleaning had begun overnight. “This year, after the Arubathu Moovar, the streets were cleaned promptly. This was a pleasant surprise, as garbage is not always cleared promptly, especially after festivals like Deepavali,” he said. 

T. Raghunathan, a resident of Chitrakulam East Street said that while the four mada streets in Mylapore had been cleared of all the garbage early in the morning, some of the smaller lanes, such as his, still had litter. 

“But when there are lakhs of devotees and large quantities of litter you cannot really expect civic agencies to clear it in just a day, especially since the crowds are still coming,” he said.

M. Vanathi who lives on Kutchery Road, said that since the crowd keeps flowing in till the festival draws to a close, litter keeps accumulating. “The festival ends on Wednesday, with small functions planned on Thursday as well,” she said.  

At the Marundeeswarar temple in Thiruvanmiyur, in two days, about five tonnes of garbage was collected.

“There was not much in terms of weight. But the quantity was large because we had thermocol cups and plates. It meant more work for the staff. We paid them cash on the spot after they finished work. Apart from the regular bins, we had placed 70 small bins and 12 big bins. Another advantage was that volunteers from the temple kept cleaning the roads as the temple car moved,” said a source.

B. Meera, a resident of Thiruvanmiyur, who went to the temple on Monday evening, said that the roads around the temple had only the usual amount of garbage while inside the temple it was very clean.

Shanta Krishnaswami, who visited the temple on Tuesday, said the temple and its surroundings had been cleaned so well and there was no trace of the massive event that had taken place.

With council approving the decision, tenders will be floated soon.

The Vellore Corporation has decided to privatise solid waste management in the corporation area.

A resolution to this effect was passed at the monthly meeting of the Vellore Corporation Council here on Friday. The decision to privatise SWM was taken after the addition of two municipalities, six town panchayats and nine village panchayats pushing up the number of wards in the Corporation to 60. After the expansion, the Corporation area has increased from 11.65 sq.km to 87.92 sq.km.

“With the Corporation Council passing the resolution approving privatisation of SWM, tenders will soon be called from private agencies to undertake the SWM works,” said Priyamvadha, City Health Officer, Vellore.

While the Corporation generated garbage of 200 tonnes per day as per the 2011 population, the existing garbage vehicles were able to remove only 150 tonnes. The Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Chennai, has in December 2012, approved the Corporation’s proposal to entrust the 715 sanitary workers posts to a private agency.

Model for SWM

The Corporation has decided to make Zone-1 comprising 15 wards in the extension areas of Gandhinagar, Kazhinjur, Virudhambut, Tharapadavedu, Katpadi and Kangeyanallur, as a model for the implementation of SWM project, in pursuance to the direction of the CMA who has asked the Corporation to select a zone for establishing an SWM model. An SWM project is already in place in Gandhinagar, where the office of the erstwhile town panchayat houses a compost yard, and garbage is being regularly collected through carts from the houses and business premises. A similar system is also in place in Kazhinjur. Four places have been identified in Zone 1 for undertaking the work of segregation of wastes and composting the garbage. The existing infrastructure in Katpadi, Gandhinagar, Kazhinjur and Pallikuppam would be modified.

While the Corporation already had six refuse collectors and seven dumper placers, it has placed orders for six more dumper placers and four more refuse collectors for undertaking the garbage collection, removal and dumping work. The model SWM would be ready by April 10, Ms. Priyamvadha said.

Sanitary workers

Meanwhile, the 715 posts of sanitary workers are to be entrusted to the private agency to be selected through tenders. The Corporation would be incurring a sum of Rs. 56.76 lakh per month (Rs. 7.17 crore per annum) on the sanitary workers. This comprised their daily wage at the rate of Rs. 208 per head per day (a total of Rs. 44.61 lakh per month), Employees Provident Fund (Rs. 5.35 lakh), administrative expenses (Rs. 66,924), service charges (Rs. 5.51 lakh), LIC premium (Rs. 71,500), ESI and other benefits (Rs. 2.90 lakh). The Corporation proposed to meet the expenditure from the general funds till a private agency is selected, officials said.

While the Corporation required 576 sanitary workers for undertaking sanitary work in the 48 wards in the upgraded Vellore Corporation before the annexation of neighbouring municipalities, and town and village panchayats, it had only 381 sanitary workers. The shortage of 195 workers was met by enlisting the services of 190 workers from women’s self-help groups (SHGs) on contract basis.

The addition of extension areas comprising two municipalities (Tharapadavedu and Sathuvachari), six town panchayats (Gandhinagar, Kazhinjur, Katpadi, Shenbakkam, Allapuram and Thorapadi) and nine village panchayats (Konavattam, Viruppakshipuram, Alamelumangapuram, Virudhambut, Kangeyanallur, Palavansathu, Idayansathu, Ariyur and Chitheri), has necessitatedemployment of 270 more SHG workers for sanitary work on contract basis.

The upgradation of the Corporation and the functioning of the local body as an integrated Corporation after the extension of new areas with effect from October 25, 2011 had increased the requirement of sanitary workers to 1,450, whereas the Corporation had only 559 workers, leaving a shortage of 891 workers. The Corporation engaged 460 SHG workers at the rate of 10 each from 46 SHGs on contract basis to undertake the additional work in all the four zones, and their contract would be ending on various days this year, the last being October 2, 2013.