Date:15/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/15/stories/2007071558700300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Concern at pace of garbage removal

Staff Reporter

Collector says clearing waste will continue till Sunday night

Photo: Vipinchandran

CITY’S WOE: Garbage heaps are piling up on the streets of Kochi. Garbage removal has become a headache to the civic administration with no place for dumping the refuses.

KOCHI: Going by the pace of the cleaning work being carried out, there is no reason why the district administration should fall short of the set objective of clearing Kochi city of the accumulated waste by Sunday, A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, District Collector, has said.

Mr. Hanish said the task of clearing waste would be carried out round-the-clock till Sunday night. The District Collector personally supervised the clearing work at Banerji Road, and twice visited the temporary dumping site at Padiyathukulam on Saturday. He said about 1,000 workers and 75 officials participated in the work. Fifty tipper lorries were used for the movement of the waste, he said. In keeping with the directive of the district administration, 99 per cent of the contingent workers turned up for work before the concerned Health Inspectors today, he said.

The list of workers who did not turn up was collected and action would be initiated against them, the District Collector said. The administration denied leave to the cleaning staff till Sunday.

The list of six sites identified for dumping waste was waiting approval of the High Court. On receiving the approval, the garbage would be moved out of the temporary dumping yard to those sites, he said.