The Hindu : Garbage collection to be revamped

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Garbage collection to be revamped

By T. Nandakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 27. The City Corporation is working on a plan to bring five more major roads under the Litter Free City programme and streamline the garbage collection mechanism.

Under the augmentation programme, workers' teams will be reorganised to eliminate coordination problems. The move is in response to the problems encountered in synchronising the garbage clearance in different Health circles.

Corporation sources said they had faced difficulties in coordinating the garbage collection on the Kowdiar- East Fort Road which was the first stretch to be taken up under the Litter Free City programme. "The problem was on account of coordinating the activities of different Health circles on either side of road,'' they said.

The revamping exercise will ensure that each area gets one team comprising workers from different circles. "This will also help avoid a blame game,'' they said. The reorganisation of teams is expected to be completed by the month end.

Meanwhile, the Kochi Corporation has reportedly expressed interest in the garbage collection system using Kudumbasree volunteers.

The new roads to be brought under the clean up drive will be decided at the next review meeting scheduled for Tuesday. It is understood that the augmented scheme will cover the Health circles in the Beach, Chalai, Medical College, Thirumala and Manacaud areas. The meeting will also discuss plans to confine the garbage collection activities to night time.

The Corporation claims that the introduction of Kudumbasree units for house-to-house collection had met with a good response from city residents. The pilot project covers the Medical College, Medical College East, Gowreesapattom, Fort and PTP Nagar wards. The door-to-door collection is carried out by women from the DWCUA (Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas) units under the Kudumbasree project.

Each ward has 15 women volunteers equipped with buckets, wheelbarrows and a specially-designed tipper autorickshaw. The volunteers have been issued uniforms and identity cards. Residents in the selected wards are provided with two coloured buckets to segregate non-biodegradable waste from organic garbage.

Apart from houses, the volunteers also collect waste from shops, hotels and wedding halls and transport it to the transit points from where it is taken to the processing plant at Vilappilsala. The project has run into a problem in the PTP Nagar ward where Kudumbasree volunteers have been intimidated by unauthorised garbage collection units. The unauthorised units are accused of carelessly dumping the garbage by roadsides and in trash cans. Earlier, the Corporation had issued an order banning all other private agencies from participating in the effort.

The Kudumbasree executive director, T.K. Jose, said moves were on to set up ward- level monitoring committees to supervise the scheme. He said the project would be augmented later with the setting up of a decentralised network of garbage processing plants including vermicomposting units.

He said the operational problems at the Vilappilsala plant had highlighted the need for an alternative. A survey carried out by the Kudumbasree project had revealed that the calorific value, Carbon-Nitrogen ratio and the moisture content of the garbage generated in the city were conducive factors for vermicomposting. It is learnt that a proposal to set up vermicomposting plants at the neighbourhood level is being considered.

Mr. Jose said the Corporation had initiated moves to sort out the problems faced by Kudumbasree workers in PTP Nagar. He said the tipper autos provided for the Kudumbasree volunteers would be remodelled to provide seating facility for two workers in the front.

The local body has allocated Rs.33 lakhs from Plan funds for the Litter Free City programme. The project will gradually be augmented with the purchase of two-wheelers for health inspectors, garbage collection vehicles and other equipment.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Garbage collection to be revamped

Crazy motorists, crazier cops

MCH departments hedge for prime space

`Gender bias worst among Nairs, X'ians'

Thefts on trains going undetected

Anti-cola stir condemned

Hospital interiors turn dumping yards

AI flights cancelled