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Hunger strike by the Vilappil panchayat president against predawn swoop by police to intervene in the garbage crisis entered second day on Sunday.
The police used the cover of darkness in the small hours on Saturday morning to ferry in equipment for the leachate treatment system at the garbage plant at Vilappil.
The operation took place at 2 a.m. after making sure that vigilante protesters had retired for the night from the makeshift shed by the main road.
The local people came to know about the operation only an hour later, and began to collect in their hundreds outside the plant and squatted at the main square. They have declared that they would not allow such clandestine operations.
The administration had promulgated prohibitory orders in the district under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) from last week.
Panchayat president Shobhana Kumari has gone on an indefinite fast at the panchayat square to protest the police action.
HARTAL
Meanwhile, the Vilappilsala People’s Action Council has called for an indefinite hartal beginning Monday. All educational institutions and trade and commercial establishments would remain closed during the hartal period.
The council ruled out the possibility of engaging with the government on the issue.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali said the hovernment chose to act since the High Court had ordered it reopen the plant.
Both the government and the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had tried several times to move in the equipment but had to withdraw in the face of stiff resistance by local residents.
Court fiat
The High Court had on more than one occasion in the recent past made its displeasure known over the failure of the administration to implement its order.
The Chief Minister said that the early morning action was decided on to avert an ugly law and order situation from recurring again.
The Urban Affairs Minister said the government wanted to avert an environmental disaster in the panchayat where around two lakh tonnes of garbage remained unprocessed.
Elsewhere in the city, mounting garbage piles are posing a public health hazard, he added.
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