KOCHI: In a bid to untie the garbage knot, a meeting of Kochi Corporation authorities, district administration officials and technocrats will be held in the presence of Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty here on January 29.

The suggestion for such a consultative meeting emerged at a meeting that the Fisheries and Registration Minister S. Sarma had with the corporation authorities and the District Collector on Tuesday. The meeting followed the High Court directive on Monday to the corporation and the Government to expedite the work on the waste disposal plant at Brahmapuram. The court said that until the permanent plant was set up, the land owned by the corporation at Brahmapuram could be used for dumping or storage of waste.

Locals were up in arms against locating the facility in their midst and have dug trenches leading up to the proposed site to prevent trucks carrying garbage getting there.

Mr. Sarma told a news conference he attended with the Kochi Mayor and the Deputy Mayor that the Government was keen on quickly ending the garbage crisis. It was also committed to executing the court directive. Asked if the Government would use force to execute the order in the face of mounting resistance by the locals, Mr. Sarma ruled it out and said that the people would be "taken into confidence" before the garbage plant was built.

The Minister said immediate, short-term and long-term measures were being planned. The long-term measure was the setting up of the garbage treatment plant at Brahmapuram. The work would be carried out on a war footing. The immediate solution was to dump the waste at Brahmapuram using sanitary landfill methods. In the short-term decentralised measures like vermi-compost and others should be undertaken by apartments, residents' associations, individual companies and establishments. In each of the corporation wards, councillors would head committees for such initiatives. The corporation would partner with voluntary agencies, Kudumbasree units, corporate sponsors and other bodies to solve the current crisis.

Mr. Sarma said a clear picture of the measures would emerge at the January 29 meeting where technocrats would make presentations on the new simple and cost-effective ways of treating garbage.

Deputy Mayor Mani Shankar said the corporation was ready to entrust to the people of Brahmapuram the task of handling waste disposal. This could be the panchayat (Vadavukodu Puthencruz) itself, a collective of people or an NGO from the area. This would create local employment and at the same time handle the disposal the way the local people wanted and without harming their interests, Mr. Mani Shankar said.

Mayor Mercy Williams complained that "exaggerated" media reports were worsening the garbage crisis. Instead of helping to solve the problem, the media was adding fuel to fire. Politicians were also exacerbating the problem.

Mr. Mani Shankar said though there were wonderful treatment systems in place in three corporation divisions, the media had never bothered to highlight such positive developments.

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