The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has questioned the city Corporation over lack of action in setting up a centralised waste treatment plant in the city after closure of the plant at Vilappilsala. A report has been sought from the Corporation on actions that it has taken regarding this.
Vilappilsala had witnessed a strong people’s agitation seven years back, after the leachate from the plant caused health issues to the residents. The Corporation was forced to close down the plant and attempts to reopen it were thwarted by the strong-willed residents.
Back in 2016, the NGT had ordered the Corporation to find an alternative location to shift the accumulated waste in the Vilappilsala plant and to set up a centralised treatment plant. The order was based on a complaint filed by the Edayar residents’ association, which had raised the issue of pollution of the Karamana River.
But, since the plant’s closure, the local body has been focussing on various measures to treat waste at source, including the installation of aerobic bins and resource recovery centres in many wards, and the organising of periodic waste collection programmes for various kinds of segregated waste.
“It might not be proper to implement a centralised system in the city based on the experiences in some other State. Here, we now have an effective decentralised model which is working fine. Even if we want to set up a centralised plant, the issue of land acquisition becomes a problem. The Corporation has planned projects for the same and earmarked funds, but no one is ready to hand over land, when they are told that it is for a waste treatment plant. People oppose any move at building such a plant, even if it is in poramboke land. In case of the nearby panchayats, none of them would spare us land after the experience in Vilappilsala,” says the Corporation Secretary L.S.Deepa.
Report sent
The Corporation has sent a report regarding the steps taken, including decentralised waste management measures and the survey on polluters on either side of Karamana and other rivers, to the Chief Secretary, who has been asked to appear before the NGT on April 24.