HEALTH AT STAKE: Garbage accumulated at the underpass of Ondipudur flyover is turning out to be a health hazard for residents in the area. - Photo: M. Periasamy

Coimbatore: Dumping of garbage at the underpass of Ondipudur Railway Bridge is a cause of concern for residents in the area. Boxes, empty oil containers, old purses and shoes, plastic bags, vegetable wastes and waste clothes are being dumped everyday on this muddy stretch. The residents in the area often suffer from skin infections, fever and infectious diseases. Though the poor living conditions of the people in the area is to be blamed, the residents point a finger at the slow pace of construction of the railway over bridge.

They say that garbage is a ubiquitous problem. The underpass has mounds of waste that keeps collecting day after day increasing the risk of an epidemic outbreak. "It aggravates the threat of mosquitoes in the summer and water borne diseases during the monsoons. The flyover construction has been going on for more than three years and the onus is on the corporation to look into the problem," says Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Weavers Colony. Clearing the garbage would not only ensure cleanliness in the area but would also eliminate the rampant problem of stray cows and dogs, which feed on the trash.

"People living across the road should also stop throwing all the muck outside and dump it at nearby garbage dumps," Rajesh adds.

N. Ragupathy, City Health Officer, says that garbage dumped in areas under the corporation limits is cleared on a daily basis. "Such unauthorised dumping of wastes will be looked into at the meeting of health officials of that locality," he adds. To add to the woes of residents, the place is used often as a toilet, making it stinky. "Despite the foul smell, l have to slow down my vehicle because the garbage strewn all over the road, make it slippery," says a motorist.

More than 1,000 pedestrians from the nearby Weavers Colony who use the stretch to reach their homes complain of headache and nausea because of the stench emanating from the garbage. The chairperson of the corporation council's standing committee on health, S. Jeyalakshmi, says that both sides of the flyover area come under different wards and within the corporation limits.

"Steps will be taken to clear the garbage," she adds.

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