Carcasses make Kattur main road stink to high heaven

Carcasses of dogs dumped amidst garbage outside a school at Kattur along the Tiruchi-Thanjavur NH. Photo: R.M. Rajarathinam

Litter strewn around shops and establishments make for an eyesore along the commercial stretch of Kattur along the Tiruchi-Thanjavur National Highway.

Discarded plastic bags and containers, even carcasses of dogs and pigs could be seen dumped along the highway in the area, which was recently merged with the City Corporation.

Last week, rotting remains of two stray dogs knocked down by passing vehicles were strewn around one of the garbage dumping spots just outside a school compound. Hundreds of students attending the school had to helplessly inhale the nauseating stench emanating from the garbage all day through. It did cause a public furore, and the carcasses were removed after a day, but the spot only got untidier due to accumulation of more garbage in the subsequent days.

This and a few other spots on either side of the stretch, where butchers and fish sellers discard their wastes on a daily basis, serve as breeding grounds for flies, and worms, creating frightening conditions for outbreak of epidemics.

Unfortunately, the business community has learnt to live with the inconvenience, perceivably, for being the root cause of the problem. They prefer to shirk off the responsibility with the refrain that the onus is on the local body to remove wastes they generate on a day-to-day basis. “It is unfair to fix responsibility on us since it is we who suffer the most due to the failure of the local body to remove the garbage.

There is no designated garbage dumping spot in the area. The scenario is a reflection of the local body's failure to act responsibly,” said E.Thirumani Azhwar, president of Kattur Vyabarigal Nala Sangam. Hitherto, the Pappakurichi panchayat could not rise up to the occasion, because of manpower and resource constraints. Wastes from the unauthorised garbage dumps could be removed only once in a fortnight. Now that entire Kattur had been brought under City Corporation, public hope that the area would receive the attention it deserves.

A section of traders is not averse to the idea of self-regulation, provided the city corporation designates a common dumping spot, and puts up large bins.

“Having a carton box for throwing away wastes and emptying it at the end of the day in a common dumping spot is all that is required of each of us. Of course, there would be a desired impact only when the action is collective,” according to Sadick Basha, a trader.