Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Fire in garbage leaves Anna Nagar residents fuming

Photo:M_Moorthy

ACTION MEN: Fire Service personnel dousing the fire at the garbage depot at Anna Nagar in Tiruchi on Thursday. —

TIRUCHI: A thick cloud of smoke hung over Anna Nagar in the City for most part of Thursday after a fire broke out at the Corporation’s garbage sub-depot in the afternoon.

The fire, which was reported at around 1 p.m., could not be extinguished until late in the evening.

Fire tenders from the Tiruchi Fire Station and Corporation water tankers were rushed to the spot.

Fire fighters had a tough time dousing the burning embers.

A strong wind aided the spread of fire to all parts of the depot.

The smoke cover was so thick that motorists faced difficulty driving through the haze on the Anna Nagar Main Road.

The incident brought to fore the long pending demand of the local residents for shifting the garbage depot out of the residential locality.

The massive depot, situated close to the Uyyakondan river, is meant to be just a transit point from where the accumulated solid waste are supposed to be transported regularly to the Corporation’s main garbage dump at Ariyamangalam.

But with the Ariyamangalam dump already saddled with over 12 lakh tonnes of garbage, the Corporation is faced with a massive problem when it comes to disposal of the solid waste generated in the city. Plans to shift the dump too has not taken off so far.

Anna Nagar residents fume that the garbage sub-depot has not only been eye sore but also a major cause of pollution.

The presence of the garbage depot has stalled the development of the locality, situated in the heart of the city. “How can a garbage depot be located in the midst of a residential locality?” wonders Sakunthala Srinivasan, a resident of Anna Nagar and President, Tiruchi Payaneetalar Iyakkam.

“The depot is a blackspot and a major health hazard in the locality. We have been making representations to the Corporation, seeking the shifting of the depot, for years. But there has been no action,” she rues.

Residents complain that the squalor and the stench emanating from the dump were unbearable.

Vultures and birds could be seen hovering over the depot on most days to rummage through the garbage, they say.

Mrs.Srinivasan points out that the garbage depot was situated almost on the banks of the Uyyakondan and its water was bound to be polluted due to the seepage of the filth and slush from the depot. The river is being used by hundreds of people every day, she observes.

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