Schools in and around the Coimbatore Corporation’s dump yard in Vellalore downed their shutters for the second day on Tuesday after the managements felt that it had become difficult to conduct classes under a blanket of smoke. A few of the schools had closed for the second half of the day on Monday.
The correspondent of a school said that though he had to close the institution in deference to the parents’ wishes, the fact was that it had become difficult to retain the students in classrooms. The smoke was so heavy with a bad odour that it was difficult for the students to even sit comfortably, leave alone pay attention to what the teacher taught.
He said that the parents agitated in front of the school on Monday saying that they wanted to take away their children from the school so as to protect them from the smoke. The police had also intervened in the issue, asking the management to close the school.
Though the schools remained shut, the students continued to suffer. Sitting at home, she could not even study for half-an-hour because the eyes itched, complained K. Kavya, a Class X student. Not just that, no amount of closing the windows or doors to keep out the smoke helped because power cut made it difficult to stay indoors while keeping the windows shut.
Her mother, K. Jayalakshmi, who protested along with residents on Tuesday, said that many residents, particularly the young ones, had dysentery, irritation in the eye and skin, breathing problems and much more _ all thanks to the never-ending smoke from the Vellalore dump yard.
She complained that senior Corporation officials had not visited the protesting residents in the past few days.
R. Selvaraj, a resident of N.G.R. Nagar, said that the police removed over 300 residents who attempted to block roads at Athupalam, on the Vellalore-Podanur Road and Kurichi Pirivu. They also registered their protests at a few other places.
Members of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam participated in the protests to express solidarity with the residents, said V. Eswaran, district secretary of the party.
