The city Corporation council on Thursday discussed developments on the solid waste management front and the Suchitwa Mission’s sanctioning of 19 biogas plants and eight windrow composting plants at various locations.
The health wing of the Corporation would soon call for tenders, standing committee chairperson S. Pushpalatha said.
Another source-level solution being considered was the setting up of aerobic composting units. This was one of the methods suggested by a Cabinet subcommittee on solid waste management constituted last year.
Ms. Pushpalatha said each unit could be installed at a cost of Rs.30,000 and 25 locations had been identified for aerobic composting systems. This would amount to Rs.7.50 lakh and special government sanction was necessary, she said.
An adjournment motion by Kottapuram ward councillor Sadanandan Thayi highlighted the garbage problem — specifically in his ‘densely populated’ coastal ward. Most families owned barely one cent of land. There was space at Karimballikara and the council passed the motion requesting the Chief Minister, Fisheries Department, Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd., and the Coastal Area Development Corporation to finance the plant.
Questioning the dismissal of 267 cleaning workers from the Government Medical College recently, standing committee chairman V.S. Padmakumar moved a resolution calling upon the government to reinstate them. This was criticised by United Democratic Front (UDF) councillors who termed it a political move.
The council adopted another adjournment motion asking the government to provide stamp vendor licences either to the Corporation’s cooperative society or a Kudumbasree group here. Many who visited the civic body, especially from beyond the city limits, complained of having to purchase stamp papers from elsewhere when it should be readily available in the Corporation itself, sources said.
School issuesEducation standing committee chairperson S. Sheela moved a resolution requesting the government to withdraw an order stating that three classrooms at Government LP School, Pongumoodu, must be temporarily handed over to the NCC Department. Ms. Sheela said it was grossly unfair since the school was pressed for space and children from underprivileged sections of society and those in the Inclusive Education for Disabled (IED) category studied there.
There were debates on proceeding with e-governance programmes and the need to distribute copies of the draft of the socio-economic census among councillors.
