Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Wednesday took strong exception to a group of people claiming to be protectors of environment by blocking all development projects in the Union Territory.
Speaking at a State-level solid waste management awareness programme, he said that the government was keen on tackling the unemployment problem and generating revenue through various projects such as development of the Puducherry port.
The government had inked a memorandum of understanding for the port development project with an intention to generate employment and revenue. But a group of people had started taking legal recourse to prevent implementation of the project, he said.
“This is quite amusing and the government will counter their initiatives effectively. Unless there is development, there will be no revenue even to pay salaries and allowances of government employees.
“Once development is envisaged, we should be prepared to tackle environmental issues,” he said.
Mr. Narayanasamy said the government had taken steps to ensure that the Union Territory was open defecation-free by 2018. The administration was spending ₹87 crore for clearing garbage in Puducherry and Oulgaret municipalities. Besides this, ₹55 lakh was being spent in Karaikal, he added.
Waste management
Certain agencies and entrepreneurs had come forward to use the garbage dumped at Kurumbapet to produce organic manure. T
he government was not expected to spend any money as the agencies would bear the expenses. But even here, some people had started stalling the plan of the government.
According to a report of the Department of Science, Technology and Environment, the per capita waste generation in Puducherry was 500 gm and nearly 500 tonnes of waste was generated every day.
With the population projected to be eight lakh in the year 2020, it would translate into an estimated 16,000 tonnes of waste.
At present, garbage is being collected, transported and disposed at the Kurumbapet dumping yard without any scientific processing.
Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy said that in another six months, the government would ban plastic. He said that a meeting would soon be convened with non-governmental organisations to work out a plan for planting saplings of fruit-bearing trees.
The government, headed by Mr. Narayanasamy, would complete its term in spite of efforts by some groups, he added.
