CHENNAI: The Pallavaram Municipality’s decision to start composting solid waste would have been welcomed if only it had not decided to construct one of the facilities in a lake. Construction of a micro compost pit funded by Swachh Bharat Mission has begun on the Pallavaram Periya Eri. This brazen violation of multiple court orders calling for encroachment-free water bodies has irked residents and local activists.
“How can the municipality, which is supposed to check encroachments, be an encroacher? It sets a horrible example to the public,” said David Manohar, a local activist with city-based advocacy group ‘Arappor Iyakkam’.Thirty pits, in three rows of 10, dot the lake bed past the Ganapathipuram burial ground at Chromepet. Each of these pits are 15-ft-deep and five-ft-wide.
While the municipality claims only temporary structures will come up, the construction activity there suggests otherwise.“The compost facility will be removable and is a temporary arrangement,” municipal engineer Karuppiah Raju told Express, not denying it is coming up on the lake bed.
However, this fails to explain iron rods being designed to support large concrete pillars at the site. Pallavaram Tahsildar Wilfred Kitchingh, who was informed of the illegal construction by Manohar, visited the site on Saturday and deemed it an encroachment. He also told workers to stop construction. However, it is learned that construction resumed in the afternoon the same day on the orders of Pallavaram Municipal Commissioner K Sivakumar.
“The tahsildar is not allowed to function,” alleged Manohar, who claims that this is not the first time municipal officials were impeding him from doing his duty.Arappor Iyakkam, which had recently stopped Pammal Municipality from constructing a solid waste management facility at Pammal Mungil Lake, has written to the Pallavaram municipal commissioner, Kancheepuram collector and Public Works Department secretary regarding the compost pits being constructed in Pallavaram Periya Eri.
Back to the same spot?
The construction of a compost facility, a few metres from the old dump site of Pallavaram Municipality, which is yet to be biomined, has raised residents’ eyebrows. They are worried that the solid waste transfer station on Thoraipakkam-Pallavaram Link Road will be closed and dumping of waste would resume at the old dump site.
“Though big apartment complexes are coming up on the link road, the smell from the transfer station is a deterrent and will bring prices down. The municipality is under pressure to close it down,” said a resident.
However, officials in Pallavaram Municipality dismissed this as a rumour and said five compost facilities are being set up in order to conform to the solid waste management rules set by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2016.