The Hindu : Corpn. continues to blame Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 03, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Corpn. continues to blame Govt.

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Oct. 2. Large piles of garbage have accumulated in several parts of the city even as the blame game between the City Corporation and the State Government over the closure of the solid waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala plant continues.

Caught between the threat of legal action by the Pollution Control Board and the compulsion to withstand the pressure tactics of the plant operators, the Corporation is desperately trying to identify new sites to dispose of the mounting garbage heaps.

The four dumping yards in the city are filled to capacity and Corporation workers are setting fire to garbage piles on the streets, exposing residents to the health hazards created by inhaling toxic fumes. Large areas on both sides of the National Highway bypass have turned into burning grounds for wastes from hotels, slaughter houses and poultry farms in the suburban areas.

The garbage disposal system in the city has been paralysed for 47 days after the Corporation's BoT partner in the project shut down the plant demanding a buy-back agreement for the bio-fertilizer manufactured at the unit.

The Government initiative to find a settlement has floundered following the company's refusal to lower the price of bio-manure.

The Corporation claims to have identified a couple of dumping sites but councillors admit that it is only a matter of time before residents wake up to the menace and start offering resistance. But with the operators refusing to resume the functioning of the Vilappil plant, there is very little the civic body can do.

Opposition councillors allege that the whole point in moving the garbage from one place to another is to convince the Pollution Control Board that the collection mechanism is in place and thereby ward off the threat of legal action.

The approaching monsoon and the threat posed by a couple of suspected Weil's disease cases in the city have put additional pressure on the Corporation to remove the garbage. Officials are afraid that the rains would worsen the situation. Residents fear that once the garbage heaps are soaked in rainwater, it would be impossible to burn them and the stench from the rotting wastes would permeate the whole city. They are worried that the accumulation of wastes would lead to an explosion of the rodent population.

The Corporation has chalked out a rodent control programme to check the outbreak of Weil's disease. Committees headed by councillors will be set up at the ward level and special squads are to be constituted to distribute information pamphlets and rat poison to households within the city.

The LDF leadership maintains that it is up to the Government to resolve the issue. They allege that a section of Government officials with vested interests have systematically torpedoed every attempt to finalise a buy-back agreement for the bio-fertilizer from the Vilappil plant. But as far as department officials are concerned, a settlement is impossible unless the plant operators agree to lower the price and bring it on par with the cost of manure sourced from other firms.

The LDF district committee is expected to take a policy decision on the garbage issue soon. Party leaders said the issue had been eclipsed by the frenetic activity within the CPI(M) at the local committee level following the expulsion of the district secretary, M. Satyanesan.

Meanwhile, civic officials are holding informal discussions with the plant operators to stave off the threat of the company's exit from the project. The Government is also keen to avoid a collapse of the BoT pact since it would send out wrong signals to potential investors.

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