The Hindu : Kerala News : Mananthavady panchayat takes its stir to doorstep of PCB

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 10, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Mananthavady panchayat takes its stir to doorstep of PCB

Special Correspondent

13 members on fast for clearance for a solid waste processing plant

Expressing solidarity: CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan addressing the Mananthavady Grama Panchayat Samiti members who began an indefinite fast before the office of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday se eking clearance for a solid waste processing plant. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: : The Mananthavady Grama Panchayat Samiti, which found its repeated pleas for clearance for a solid waste processing plant from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board falling on deaf ears, has taken its woes to the Board's doorstep.

Thirteen of the 19 panchayat samiti members began a fast before the Board office here on Wednesday with the vow that they would not return home without getting the Board's clearance for the plant.

"We cannot go back home without the Board's clearance. We know well that the Board has nothing against the plant being set in the location chosen by the panchayat. It is the Health Minister who is standing in the way of the Board issuing clearance for the plant," panchayat vice-president J. Babu said.

Mananathavady, he pointed out, was the first Grama Panchayat to draw up plans for setting up solid waste processing plant using the technology successfully applied in Chalakudy municipality by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP).

The panchayat's decision was to set it up in the 6.5-acre land in its possession close to the 2-acre panchayat cremation ground using the Government grant of Rs.25 lakhs.

The project was approved by the Grama Sabha and the District Planning Committee (DPC) and cleared by the Pollution Control Board in 2003.

The District Medical Officer also cleared it the same year.

However, the local people filed a writ petition in the Kerala High Court and the Court directed the District Collector to submit a report on the most appropriate location for setting up the plant.

The Collector constituted a committee comprising representatives of the Pollution Control Board, DMO and the KSSP. Based on their report, the Court allowed setting up of the plant at the same location and work began in 2004.

Work stayed

However, the Pollution Control Board chairman stayed the work on October 30, 2004. The panchayat samiti's repeated pleas for review of the decision was to no avail.

Panchayat samiti members belonging to the CPI(M), Congress, Muslim League and the CPI are on fast under the leadership of panchayat president Sarada Sajivan.

"We are united in our struggle because we cannot face the people without finding a solution to this problem," Mr. Babu said.

CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and the National Congress (Indira) leader K. P. Kunhikkannan visited the fasting panchayat members on Thursday and promised them full support of the two parties.

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