Chennai: NGT fixes deadlines for Chitlapakkam panchayat to follow Solid Waste Management rules

CHENNAI: After The New Indian Express published multiple reports on poor garbage collection in Chitlapakkam, the National Green Tribunal took suo motu cognizance and the final order was passed recently.

Citing the article dated September 24 and subsequent articles on non-compliance of previous order, the NGT, directed the town panchayat to implement Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016 by January 31 and identify a new site for the resource recovery park (to segregate waste).

Since identification of land for the recovery centre may take time, the civic body has been given time till June 30, 2021. "Also, an incinerator of 5 TPD (tonnes per day) capacity was installed and test run completed. It is yet to be brought to proper function for which TNPCB permission was sought for and TNPCB issued notice to stop running the incinerator. Again, by June 30, 2021, once a new place is identified for resource recovery park, this incinerator will be removed and shifted to new place," the order said.

Also, an 100 per cent source segregation deadline has been set for January 31, 2021. "We are very happy with the court’s direction and hope panchayat officials take the issue seriously, at least now. It is a question of safety and hygiene," said Dayanand Krishnan, one of the residents.

The residents of Chitlapakkam rue that ever since the pandemic began, other civic issues have taken a back seat. Their complaint was that trash is only being collected once or twice a week , due to which waste is piling up on the roads.

About a year ago, five mini vans were rolled out to collect trash from about 7,000 houses and the rest were being collected by manually-operated tricycles. There was a tender anomaly and as the conservancy workers weren't being paid, vehicles suddenly stopped coming. Though this issue has been rectified to an extent, garbage collection remained irregular ever since.