The ongoing protest over waste dumping at Choolpuram, the Guruvayur municipality’s waste dumping yard, became violent on Sunday as the local people clashed with the police.
Tension prevailed in the morning as the local people, including women and children, stopped the vehicles that came to dump waste at the yard with police protection. Eleven people were injured in the clashes.
The police arrested ten persons, including ward councillor A.T. Hamsa, in this connection. The injured have been admitted to the Chavakkad Taluk hospital.
ADVERTISEMENT
A joint protest council has been on a hunger strike for the last five days demanding that the municipality find a lasting solution for the waste issue.
Decades of waste dumping had been posing a severe threat to the lives of people in the area, the protest council said. The environment was highly polluted and all the drinking water sources in the area were contaminated, it noted.
The protesting people said they would not allow further dumping of waste at any cost. The municipality had been manipulating the High Court order stopping waste dumping at the site, they said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Around 100 people gathered at the gate after five vehicles with garbage reached the trenching ground by 6 a.m. The vehicles could not enter the ground following protests of local people.
Minor clashes occurred when a police force of 100 led by ACP P.A. Sivadasan tried to remove the protesters.
Two of the joint protest council members, who have been observing hunger strike, lay in front of the gate of the trenching ground. Ten more people joined them expressing solidarity with them.
As police started using force, one of the protesters doused his body with petrol. As more people, including women, started pouring petrol over their body, the police removed them from the scene using force. A 66-year-old protester Rajan, who was beaten up by the police on the chest, collapsed. He has been admitted to the intensive care unit.
The municipality, two days ago, had taken decision to dump organic waste after segregation at the trenching ground. However, it could not dump the waste at the ground even on Saturday following protests.