Chennai's Perumbakkam waste transfer station now a dump, locals slam authorities
CHENNAI: The garbage transfer station behind the Perumbakkam panchayat office in Jalladianpet main road has in all but name, been functioning as a waste dumpyard. Residents said the area attracts stray cattle, apart from disgorging a foul stench throughout the day.
After it was decided to use the vacant plot behind the panchayat office as a garbage transfer station, battery-operated vehicles first dump all collected waste here and later transfer them to the landfill near Oragadam. However, due to disorganised waste management, the collected waste remains there for a long time.
Residents said the issue has been tormenting them for the past two years. “It takes only two or three days for waste to accumulate in many areas. So, people started dumping waste directly at this site,” said Muthukrishnan, a resident.
Ragpickers also frequent this area. “On most days, only half of the collected waste is transferred to the landfill. So, we collect whatever we can from here,” said one ragpicker. Food and plastic waste disposed in the open attract lots of stray animals, and this causes trouble for the large number of motorists travelling from Perumbakkam to Pallikaranai.
Narayanan, another resident, said the officials have taken no action despite several complaints. “There are more than 2,000 houses in the locality and the Jalladianpet main road is the most accessible to them. The waste from the ‘dumpyard’ fills the road whenever it rains,” he added.
Meanwhile, experts opined such unhygienic maintenance is an outright violation of Solid Waste Management (SWM) rules. Kathiresan Karthikeyan, former member secretary of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, told TNIE, “SWM rules are the same for both urban and rural local bodies. They should employ adequate manpower and modern technology to curb such issues.”
Elected representatives on the other hand alleged they couldn’t assign any more garbage spots due to hostility from residents. Suhasini Rangarajan, Perumbakkam chairperson, told TNIE, “Nobody wants such a facility to operate near their houses. We have asked the administration to provide us with more land, manpower and vehicles so that we can transfer the waste to the landfill daily.”