Garbage crisis in the Kerala capital worsened with the Vilappil panchayat administration pressing its demand to close down the treatment plant at the earliest.

The plant was set up to process solid waste generated by the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation.

A Supreme Court directive had demanded the panchayat to allow trucks to ferry in clay and machinery to complete the work on a leachate treatment unit and sanitary fill.

Garbage collected within the premises had been rotting for long, raising a potential health hazard. It needed to be processed before the seasonal rains arrive.

But the Vilapppil panchayat administration said an all-party meeting had demanded that closure of the plant be announced first.

The Kerala Urban Affairs Minister, Mr Manjalamkuzhi Ali, tried in vain to convince the panchayat representatives of the need to get work done on the leachate plant and process the rotting garbage.

The representatives told the Minister that they were aware of the situation but the opposition to the garbage plant was such that local people were ready to live with the threat posed by the garbage heap for the moment.

The issue has seen protracted negotiations and even street action, in which scores of people, including women and children, have prevented police from forcibly making way for laden trucks into the plant premises.

>vinson@thehindu.co.in

 

Related Topics