City to host zero-waste conference from Saturday

T’puram: The city corporation which has been cornered over its continuous insistence on decentralised waste management now plans to hold a gathering of cities espousing similar ideas. The conference will be held from February 15 to 17 at University College campus.
Experts in environment and waste management and people's representatives will take part in the conference. Finance minister Thomas Isaac will deliver the keynote address and present the topic. Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan will inaugurate the conference on Saturday at 10.30am.
T N Seema, executive vice-chairperson, Haritha Keralam Mission, scientist Ajayakumar Varma and Sunita Narayanan, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment, will be present at the inaugural event. A ‘Trivandrum declaration’ will be formulated based on ideas from the conference. The declaration will be handed over to LSG minister A C Moideen. UNDP representatives Sreekrishna, Arun Ramachandran, Howrah municipal corporation commissioner Bijin Krishna, director of agriculture K Vasuki will present papers at the conference. 25 persons can register for the conference through open entry. Registration can be done via smarttvm.corporationoftrivandrum.in.
An open house will be held on innovative solutions in waste management. This will also open up opportunities for innovators to present their ideas in front of experts in waste management. Interested persons can register by February 14 for the open house. Registration documents can also be sent to ccccproject@gmail.com. Selected students will also take out a declaratory procession ahead of the conference.
Recently, state pollution control board in a show-cause notice had openly slammed the corporation for following source-level waste management. PCB had pointed out that decentralised waste management in the city was a failure and corporation had failed to comply with mandatory norms laid down by solid waste management rules. tnn