Vellalore town panchayat seeks to use city's solid waste facility

Local body does not have wherewithal to manage its waste

FOR CLEANER ENVIRONS: Vellalore town panchayat is waiting for permission from Coimbatore Corporation to use the solid waste management facility of the city. File Photo: M. Periasamy

Vellalore town panchayat has sought permission to use the Coimbatore Corporation's solid waste management facility. The Corporation has the facility - a waste segregation plant and landfill site within the town panchayat limits.

In the run up to the expansion of the Coimbatore Corporation limits, Vellalore was in the reckoning to be a part of the expanded city. It did not make it, though, as the State Government decided against the inclusion.

The Government's decision has once again brought to fore the issue of solid waste management in the town panchayat.

Sources there say that the local body does not have the wherewithal to manage the five tonnes of waste it generates a day. They say the civic body is in want of men and materials.

There are only 15 conservancy workers. Eighteen more are needed. There are 15 roadside bins – one each for a ward – but 15 more are needed. The local body is also in need of a tipper lorry.

The sources say even if the town panchayat were to get all the men and materials it does not have a place of its own to process the collected solid waste and it was for that reason that the civic body had approached the Corporation through the district administration.

They refer to the resolution the Vellalore local body passed in this regard in 2009. The resolution reads: As the town panchayat does not have a land of its own, or Revenue Department land and the wherewithal to buy a land for the implementation of the solid waste management programme, it resolved to use the Corporation's facility.

It said it was also ready to pay the service charge necessary.

The town panchayat is now expecting a reply for the proposal from the Corporation.

Sources in the Corporation say that managing the town panchayat's waste will not be a problem because the quantity it generates – five tonnes - is miniscule compared to Corporation's 600-odd tonnes.

The Corporation sources also say that the Council will have to pass a resolution in this regard and the same has to have the approval of the State Government.

In the absence of the approval from the Corporation, the civic body is dumping waste at the yard.