Coimbatore Corporation claims it dumps only processed waste in Vellalore

‘What Corporation is doing is very much in accordance with the rules’

Corporation will have to convince the National Green Tribunal’s Southern Bench if it will have to continue dumping waste at Vellalore.

On Friday, the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal in Chennai restrained the Coimbatore Corporation from dumping unsegregated waste at the dump yard in Vellalore. It also asked the Corporation to not burn waste there.

The Bench’s interim order was on a petition filed by K.S. Mohan, a Vellalore resident, who had alleged that the Corporation had been dumping mixed (unsegregated) waste since 2003 on the land that was earmarked for the construction of a sewage treatment plant.

The dumping of waste had polluted the air and water in the area that was thickly populated.

Based on his contentions, the Bench also ordered issue to notices to the Coimbatore Corporation and the Department of Municipal Administration asking them to file replies by October 30.

In response to the Bench’s order, officials in the Coimbatore Corporation said that the Corporation dumped only segregated waste in Vellalore. The 800-tonne waste that was collected from households and commercial establishments in the city was taken to transit stations and from there to the Vellalore dump yard.

The contractor engaged for the purpose of waste management, Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Company Private Limited, was successfully segregating the waste at Vellalore.

Using the machines it had installed, it segregated the waste into organic and inorganic, used the organic waste to produce compost, processed the inorganic waste and used the reject waste in landfill.

Commissioner G. Latha said that what the Corporation was doing now was very much in accordance with the rules and the civic body was in no way violating the Bench’s order. She, however, said that she would have to study the order in full before commenting further.

The Commissioner said that the Corporation had only recently pulled up the contractor for having insufficient machinery.

Regarding the interim order that banned burning of waste in Vellalore yard, the Commissioner said that the Corporation had never burnt waste there. In fact, it had ensured that there had been no fire accidents at the dump yard.