In a flagrant violation of assurances, initially by the Chief Minister and then by two Ministers, that plastic waste would no longer be dumped at the Brahmapuram plant, the Kochi Corporation has been doing exactly that in the cover of night at least for the past two days much to the chagrin of the local population, it has emerged.
Multiple loads of waste, by some estimates in excess of 50 loads, including plastic, were initially mobilised before the Corporation office and them moved to the Brahmapuram plant with heavy police escort on Saturday around 1.30 a.m. The convoy of lorries was met with stiff protest. A group of around 40 slogan-shouting Congress workers stopped the lorries at the gates of the plant before the police forcibly removed them off the path and let the vehicles inside the plant where heaps of plastic garbage went up in flames 10 days ago and are still smouldering, forcing people from smoke-affected areas to move out in droves.
“The Corporation had tried to dump five loads of waste in the plant on the third day after the fire breakout but had to drop the plan in the face of popular protest. The lorries returned on Saturday and forced their way in with the help of the police. This is administrative terrorism. Till the fire breakout, we didn’t have any clue that this much plastic waste was being dumped here as the plant was out of bounds for local people,” said Binoj Marcose, a resident of Pinarmunda ward in Kunnathunadu panchayat, which is hardly a kilometre from the plant.
T.K. Ashraf, Health Standing Committee chairman of the Corporation, reasoned that waste dumped in public places since waste collection was suspended in the wake of the fire breakout was being cleared by moving it to the Brahmapuram plant. “Plastic waste will be segregated at the plant and taken elsewhere. Hereafter, we will not take any plastic waste to the plant,” he said.
Navas T.S., member of Brahmapuram ward of Vadavucode-Puthencruz panchayat, alleged that the Corporation had dumped waste at the plant even in the early hours of Friday on the grounds that it had got accumulated before the Chief Minister gave assurance that plastic waste would not be taken to the plant. He claimed that he was present on the premises around 3 a.m. on receiving reports that waste dumping was under way but was forcibly removed.
“The panchayat has no say in the operations of the plant despite it being run within the local body limits, which is grossly unfair. Hopefully, it will now change since the panchayat has been made constituent of a monitoring committee formed to evaluate and report on the functioning of the plant every three months,” he said.
The Congress, meanwhile, is gearing up to intensify the protest against any future move to dump plastic waste at the site. “On Saturday, we were just around 40 persons and were easily outnumbered by the police. But from here on we will mobilise even large crowds and stay awake to stop any move to dump waste in the plant. We have no problem setting up a modern scientific treatment plant to treat biodegradable waste at Brahmapuram. But we are not going to allow to turn it into a mere dumping yard that could go up in flames any time,” said M.P. Salim, president of Congress Ambalamedu Mandalam committee, which organised the protest against waste dumping in front of the plant on Saturday.
