Kerala - Kozhikode   

Ruckus over garbage disposal

KOZHIKODE: Residents associations have raised protest against the alleged apathetic attitude on the part of the city Corporation towards garbage disposal.

“The authorities concerned are negligent towards removing waste, including plastic, from households and street-corners. They should devise an alternative system to when Kudumbasree workers do not turn up every day,” said E.V. Sasidharan, vice-president, Palat Nagar Residents Association.

Nadakkavu Residents Association president A.K. Jayakumar echoed similar sentiments. “The volunteers at times do not collect the garbage for three days. They find fault with the Corporation for not replacing the old vehicles,” he said.

The former president of the residents' Apex council of Kozhikode T.J. Varkey said people dump garbage at street corners or vacant plots if the Kudumbasree volunteers are irregular. “Sometimes association members donate money to the Kudumbasree groups to get their vehicles repaired,” he added.

However, Kudumbasree volunteers said the irregularity in service was on account of the fact that their vehicles had to be serviced twice or thrice a week. Most of them are old and unfit to transport garbage. “Nothing has been done even after we apprised the authorities concerned about the problem six months ago,” said K. Chandramathi, of the Sneha Kudumbasree Unit.

Janamma Kunjunni, chairperson, Standing Committee on Health, said the Corporation planned to provide new vehicles to all the Kudumbasree units.

It had already purchased 180 vehicles, including tractors, mini-lorries and three-wheeler goods auto, using the funds of the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project.

However, she said the Regional Transport Office was yet to give registration number to these vehicles. This delay caused the irregular functioning of the system, Ms. Kunjunni said.

But the Regional Transport Officer T.P. Sasidharan Nair dismissed the allegation of the Corporation. The Kozhikode office registered between 125 and 150 vehicles daily. The office would have catered to the Corporation on a priority basis if at all it requested. “At the same time, the Corporation will have to adhere to rules and procedures including inspection of the vehicles,” he said.

Former councillor P. Divakaran, who was also a member of the Standing Committee on Health, said that the residents were actually not getting the benefits for the money they contribute to the solid waste management programme.

On an average, the amount collected from each ward (1,500 households) for a month could be anywhere between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.12 lakh. That means the total contribution from a ward on a yearly basis was around Rs.1.25 crore and from 55 wards, more than Rs.70 crore, he said.

“The Corporation cannot dodge from its responsibility in providing infrastructure facilities to maintain the programme,” Mr. Divakaran said.

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