The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rajasthan Governor visits Pammal compost yard

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rajasthan Governor visits Pammal compost yard

Staff Reporter

Pratibha Devisingh Patil tastes `paniyaram,' hails initiative

ON A VISIT: Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Devisingh Patil at the Zero Waste centre of Pammal Municipality on Monday. — Photo : A. Muralitharan

TAMBARAM : Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Monday visited the Zero Waste Centre (compost yard) of Pammal Municipality, where in a unique initiative, a corporate firm, residents, municipal authorities and a voluntary organisation have come together to convert kitchen waste into manure through the process of vermi composting.

Her visit to the Centre was very brief. Mangalam Balasubramaniam, president, Pammal Exnora Innovators Club, guided her around the facility. With support from Pammal Municipality and Kancheepuram district administration, Exnora set up the unit where initially, segregation of garbage collected from eight of the 21 wards was done. The project was implemented with financial assistance from Pepsico.

At present, 100 street beautifiers and 150 women belonging to self help groups were employed; using about 150 tricycles, garbage from all the 21 wards was collected. After segregation, kitchen waste is converted into manure through the process of vermi composting and the manure is sold in the market.

Ms. Patil lauded the efforts taken by all those associated with the project and said such projects were relevant all over the country. She also tasted `paniyaram' a variety of snack prepared by a women's SHG.

Ms. Patil's husband Devi Singh Shekhawat, who is the President of Maharashtra State Education Institutes Federation, Archana Patnaik, Additional Collector and Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency of Kancheepuram district, R. Kandhavel, vice chairman of Pammal Municipality, and M.B. Nirmal, Exnora International founder accompanied the Governor.

Mr. Nirmal said Pammal's Zero Waste Centre was a model that could be easily followed by other local bodies. Activists present on the occasion recalled that the Pammal Centre had attracted the attention of experts, planners, environmentalists and administrators from various parts of India and even overseas students. However, the State government, the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply or adjoining local bodies were hardly interested in the initiative so that it could be implemented in other urban areas where tackling and disposing garbage was a pressing problem.

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