The district administration has asked officials manning the check posts at the Kerala border to step up vigil following Monday’s attempts to dump medical waste in Ettimadai.
Sources in the Revenue Department said that the Collector had given instructions to the people manning the Commercial Tax, Transport and Police check posts to step up vigil to ensure that no medical waste entered the district. Th department had also instructed its Revenue Inspectors and Village Administrative Officers in Madukkarai, Ettimadai, Mavuthampathi, Thirumalayampalayam, and Pichanur villages to ensure that no land further dumping of waste from across the border took place in the villages.
It had also asked the field-officials to closely interact with the people there to get immediate information of dumping, if any.
On Monday, the residents of Ettimadai prevented 23 lorries from Kerala from dumping waste on the farm land belonging to a Chellappa Gounder. They had also ‘seized’ 24 lorries. On inquiry the residents got to know that the Gounder had leased out his land to Mohammad Ilyas of Palakkad, Kerala, to be used as stock yard for segregating waste.
The police had meanwhile registered a case against Chellappa Gounder, Ilyas and the latter’s agents Shaji and Shabir, both from Palakkad, on charges of attempting to spread infection of disease dangerous to life by invoking Section 270 of Indian Penal Code.
The police had also arrested Ilyas and were on the lookout for Shaji and Shabir.
MDMK protest
A few members of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by State youth wing secretary V. Eswaran staged a protest in front of the Coimbatore office of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board demanding that measures be taken to stop dumping of waste from across the border.
He said that the dumping of waste from across the border had been going on for the last 10 years notwithstanding the fact that residents in villages bordering Kerala and various political parties had been protesting and voicing concerns in this regard.
At a time when Kerala had been so cautious that it did not allow even vegetables saying that they contained pesticide residues in excess of the permitted quantity, the officials in Coimbatore seemed show least concern to the problem of waste from across the border that been polluting the State.
Those sending the lorries were smart enough to prepare documents saying that the waste was meant for Kerala but dump those in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
The officials here should be extra cautious in allowing lorries, especially those with bills saying that they carried plastic scrap, as that was term used to send medical waste.
Mr. Eswaran wanted the State Government to remove plastic scrap from the list of items permitted to enter the State and send the Environment Minister to the district to study the problem in detail and provide a solution at the earliest.
