The district administration has decided to call one more public hearing to collect opinion of the local people, ahead of the setting up of a biomedical waste treatment facility at Elavupalam, near Palode.
The fresh decision is due to lack of enough representatives from the area in the first meeting held two days ago. The plant, being set up by the Indian Medical Association Goes Eco-friendly (IMAGE), is proposed to come up inside a seven-acre-plot in the area.
Both the panchayat president and vice president of the Peringamala panchayat, where the plant is proposed to be located, said they were unaware of the public hearing held last week. “I just heard about the plant when someone called me up earlier today,” said panchayat president P. Chithrakumari.
According to organic farmer and environmentalist S.J. Sanjeev, who attended the first meeting at the Collectorate, there was a clear lack of representation of local people. “There should be adequate number of local people at the hearing, especially for such projects coming up near ecologically sensitive areas. I attended it accidentally, when I visited the Collectorate. The meeting should ideally be held at the place where the project is coming up,” he said.
The second hearing will be held at the Panchayat Hall in Peringamala on December 3 at 3 p.m. District Collector K. Vasuki said the second hearing was being organised to ensure that more people from the area participated. “Advertisements were given in advance in major newspapers regarding the public hearing. Some local people and those a few panchayat members did participate. But we decided that one more meeting has to be organised in the location of the plant to get everyone’s opinion,” said the Collector.
Indian Medical Association State Secretary Sreejith N. Kumar said the plant was being set up by ensuring the best ecological standards, and that the organisation wanted the local people to know every aspect of the plant.
“Even the IMA is just a participant in the public hearing. We are using only two acres of the 7-acre plot for the plant. The five acres around it will be used for an ecology park,” he said.
