City turns into a dumpyard

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A peaceful Sunday it should have been; but Mayor K Chandrika received the shock of her life early in the day when she saw how a mammoth march had reduced the main stretch at Palayam and the Chandrasekharan Nair stadium into a dump yard.
Bottles, thousands of them, plastic glasses, covers, paper plates, left-over foodstuff, packets of snacks and what not, abandoned in the street and stadium after the concluding march of the Kerala Yatra led by Kanthapuram A P Aboobaker Musaliyar the other day greeted the Corporation officials on Sunday morning.
 “The stadium workers were burning the bottles on one side and there were heaps of garbage stuffed on the other. We did not know what to do or where to take them. When we say this is a city of a huge floating population, government lends no ears. But this is what happens. What does the government expect us to do by keeping our waste plant locked and the keys in their pocket?” asks Mayor.
  The Corporation employees collected and landfilled the garbage from the street at a place in Palayam while the garbage inside the stadium was disposed of by the stadium employees. The Corporation officials however have no idea how.
  According to Mayor K Chandrika, the city with its share of religious centres, that too places of worship frequented by thousands from other places-creates waste in big volumes.   
 “Comparing a capital city where a huge floating population visits and dumps garbage, with a village where only the living population generates waste is ridiculous. Kitchen waste could be treated through pipe composts or bio-gas plants. But the case of garbage from public spaces is a problem nobody wants to see and expects the Corporation to look after,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Corporation is all set to meet the Ministers concerned and DGP on Monday asking them to lend their support in implementing the Supreme Court verdict. The apex court had given a go-ahead to the Corporation to open the plant and resume its operations provided it treats only 90 tonnes of waste per day.