The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation Budget announcement
on clearing a portion of its sprawling Ariyamangalam dump, to create
space for accommodating more garbage from the city, has run into
opposition from local residents.

Although the garbage
dump is bursting at its seams, with over 12 lakh tonnes of solid waste
accumulating down the years, the corporation in its Budget 2013-14 has
unveiled a plan to clear about five acres in the northeast corner of the
40-acre dump to create the space for dumping about 400 tonnes of
garbage generated in the city every day. The task is estimated to cost
the agency Rs. 8 crore.

The move flies in the face of
the persistent demands from local residents to shift the garbage dump
to the outskirts of the city. Faced with heavy pollution from the mounds
of reeking garbage, people living in and around the dump at
Ariyamangalam have been campaigning over the past couple of years
seeking steps to shift the dump and to remove the accumulated garbage.

The
corporation had toyed with various ideas to overcome the problem. A
proposal to go in for ‘scientific closure’ of the accumulated garbage,
by converting them into green hillocks, on the lines of a project
executed in Coimbatore failed to take off.

Thousands
of residents in the three wards of 7, 28, and 29 have been badly
affected by the pollution caused by the garbage dump. Several
educational institutions are located around it. Apart from the heavy air
pollution, the groundwater in the area is getting polluted . The
putrefied garbage attracts a large number of pigs. Many residents are
already suffering from wheezing owing to the air and dust pollution from
the dump, locals complain.

“We were hoping that the
Corporation will at least stop dumping more garbage here and start
removing the accumulated garbage gradually. It is shocking that they
have decided to go on dumping the city’s everyday garbage collection
here,” regretted Rajan, a resident of Mela Ambikapuram.

S.P.
Saravanan, a former councillor of Ariyamangalam area who has been
campaigning for shifting the dump, questions the decision to spend Rs. 8
crore on this venture when the civic body has presented a Budget with a
deficit of Rs. 18 crore. “It is a complete waste of public money. It
smacks of neglect of people’s interest,” he said.

The
move, he said, went against the Corporation’s assurance given to the
residents last year that the dump would be shifted. “Following
representations, the Ariyamangalam Assistant Commissioner has given me a
reply in September last year assuring that a site will be identified on
the outskirts of the city and the garbage dump will be shifted there
with the approval of the Corporation Council. We do not know what
happened to the assurance,” he said.

The air
pollution caused by the dump, he said, was now spreading up to
Tiruverumbur, especially as the garbage frequently catches fire due to
gaseous emissions.

Mr. Saravanan and a section of
local residents suggest that the accumulated garbage could be removed
and dumped at the abandoned stone quarries near Thuvakudi and closed
properly. “These are huge quarry sites, some of them running to a depth
of 200 to 300 feet. They can easily accommodate the accumulated garbage
and also take in the garbage collected from the city every day,” Mr.
Saravanan said.