V. Shankar calls garbage management in Kalyan Nagar, a locality in Mandavelipakkam, “a stinking mess”. He attributes the poor state of garbage disposal and clearance to the lack of garbage bins on most streets. Even those streets that have been provided with bins face the problem of strewn-about litter, because these bins are not capacious enough to take the garbage generated by all the residents.
Residents complain that these bins are too small than bovines easily upturn them and look for leftovers, spilling wastes on to the streets.
Little wonder then that The Kalyan Nagar Association has put the issue high on its list of priorities. Recently, members of the residents association met officials of Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited to thrash out a solution.
The meeting, chaired by V. Shankar, treasurer of the Association, went through various aspects of garbage management in the locality, including home-to-home garbage collection.
Shankar chalked up the mess to the absence of garbage bins at many streets of Kalyana Nagar.Augustine of Third Trust Cross Street, said, “There are no garbage bins on 11, 12, 13, and 14 Trust Cross Street. The garbage from four streets is disposed of in the bin placed on Third Street. Steps must be taken to place bins on all the four streets.”T. M. Veeraraghavan of West Circular Road, pointed out that the roadside garbage bin on the street had been removed and called for an immediate replacement. “People have the habit of throwing the garbage on the street and pavements. The rag pickers scatter it,” he said.
While appreciating the concept of ‘bin-less streets’, Shankar pointed out that it would work only if people had civic sense.
He said that utmost co-operation from residents alone would lead to the success of home-to-home garbage collection and disposal scheme. Shankar said residents were too lazy to place the garbage in their home bins and flung them on the streets as they travelled by their vehicles.
Another issue that came up for hearing was clearance of construction debris on Sixth Trust Cross Street.
“It is the joint responsibility of house owners, contractors and construction workers to clear the debris. A clear policy for an effective disposal of construction debris should be implemented to prevent contractors and house owners from dumping it wherever they liked,” S. Radhakrishnan said.
S. Anthony Mani Maran of Ramky Enviro Engineers assured the residents that suitable measures would be adopted to improve the garbage clearance mechanism in Kalyana Nagar and sought their co-operation in this regard. The Association plans to conduct a meeting with Ramky Enviro Engineers every month.
