The inevitability of finding new dumping sites for garbage generated in the capital city was thrust to the fore on Monday when the collective will of the people of Vilappil panchayat sent back two garbage-laden trucks taken there by the city Corporation.
At a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday evening, Mayor K. Chandrika claimed that all the 20 sites in the city where garbage was being deposited were nearly full. Unless fresh sites were identified at once, the garbage crisis would get out of hand, Ms. Chandrika reportedly said.
District Collector K.N. Satheesh, who was present at the meeting, told The Hindu that he had identified up to four fresh sites in the city — government land — where garbage could be dumped. In the light of Monday's experience, it was unlikely that garbage trucks would roll to Vilappilsala on Tuesday, he said.
The city Corporation is preparing to approach the High Court of Kerala with a prayer that the judiciary direct the State government to provide alternatives for dealing with the garbage crisis. “On Monday morning itself, I told the Chief Minister that people were mobilising at Vilappil. He just told me he would call back. The police did nothing as hundreds and hundreds of people mobilised and positioned themselves. After that, what was the point of taking the trucks there? Everyone knew there was no getting past the people,” Ms. Chandrika told The Hindu .
In an affidavit, the Corporation would point out to the court the chronology of events at Vilappil following the January 23 court order to reopen the treatment plant. The Corporation would detail how the government gave time to the protesters to think their strategy through, and how the agitators gave a petition to the government saying that they did not intend to honour the court's directive, Ms. Chandrika said.
Tenders for plants
Even as the last date (February 21) for submitting bids to set up decentralised waste treatment plants in the city nears, the land belonging to the Thiruvananthapuram Development Authority at Chala appears likely to be the site to host the city's first decentralised garbage processing unit.
By all available indications, the government plans to set up an integrated treatment plant, one that combines two or more methods of waste treatment, at Chala.
It also expects to hard-sell this plant to people living near sites identified for setting up small or medium treatment plants.
Government officials who took part in Monday's meeting said the ‘work order' for the plant may be issued by the middle of March. “From thenon, it will take six to eight months for the plant to become fully operational,” one official said.
