A few weeks after the Fort City adopted ‘no-dumping’ policy, the problem of garbage disposal is far from over. While the Vellore Corporation removed nearly 100 bins from the city and launched door-to-door collection of segregated waste, garbage is piling up in a number of residential localities and new littering points have surfaced. There are also complaints that garbage dumped on the roads is being set on fire regularly in a number of areas.
Aiming at achieving source segregation of garbage, the Vellore Corporation removed several garbage bins from the city, and kept many bins in an inverted position to prevent residents from dumping waste into it. Though this strategy paid off in a number of areas, it has led to indiscriminate dumping of waste on the roadside in many residential localities such as parts of Sathuvachari, Kosapet, Saidapet and a few other parts of the old town.
While residents of some areas pointed out that the sanitary workers were collecting the garbage from their doorsteps everyday; there were localities such as Kosapet where the garbage was being dumped indiscriminately. “Garbage collected by sanitary workers from wards 30, 31, 32 and 33 is being dumped on Kandasamy Zamindar Street (ward 34) near the Government Pentland Hospital (GPH) road on a daily basis. A few residents and shops too dump the waste at the street corner. During evening hours, sanitary workers have been setting the garbage on fire. We raised the issue with the Corporation officials earlier. Though the spot was cleaned up thoroughly, garbage is being continuously dumped here,” a shopkeeper in Kosapet said.
A pile of garbage was set on fire on Friday evening on GPH Road. Another shopkeeper said, “People from nearby localities started to dump the waste on the roadside after the bins were overturned. No sanitary worker clears it. The waste is being set on fire for the last three days here,” he added. Uthira Madha Koil Street is another locality where garbage has piled up. Registrar Periyasamy Mudaliar Street also faces similar woes.
In areas where door-to-door collection is yet to commence, residents continue to dump the waste in the open in the absence of bins.
Residents at fault
Residents too are at fault in some areas. As Gayathri, a resident of Sathuvachari, pointed out, “Sanitary workers have been regularly collecting garbage from our houses. But a few residents have been dumping the waste on the street after the bins were removed. They complain that they were not at home when the sanitary workers came for collection. As a result, several new littering spots have emerged at Phase II of Housing Board.”
Another resident pointed out to how a previously clean spot off the RTO Road has turned into a dumping spot as many disposed garbage bags in the evenings. Spots where bins were earlier kept have not been spared too.
