In order to find a solution to the garbage menace, the City Corporation is organising a City Protection Convention on Saturday. Through the convention, the Corporation plans to create awareness among public on the need for decentralised waste management and minimal use of plastics, said Mayor K Chandrika at a press conference here on Thursday.
Speaker G Karthikeyan will inaugurate the convention, which will begin at 4 pm at St Joseph’s School in General Hospital Junction. Political and cultural leaders will attend the programme. Leader of Opposition V S Achuthanandan will deliver the keynote address. BJP leader O Rajagopal will be the chief guest. MLAs V Sivankutty, K Muraleedharan, M A Vahid and Jameela Prakasam, and former Ministers M Vijayakumar, C Divakaran and V Surendran Pillai will address the function. Actor Suresh Gopi will administer the oath.
Cardinal-designate Baselios Mar Cleemis, Major Archbishop Soosaipakiyam, Palayam Imam Moulavi Jamaludeen Mankada, Swami Sandeep Chaitanya, Sree Ramakrishna Ashram president Swami Tatwaswaroopananda, TRIDA chairman P K Venugopal, poet Sugathakumari, technical committee chairman R V G Menon, former bureaucrats D Babu Paul and Babu Jacob, former DGP Jacob Punnoose and district leaders of various political parties will attend the programme.
Cultural personalities such as George Onakkoor, Lenin Rajendran, Menaka Suresh, Ezhachery Ramachandran, Prabha Varma, Neelamperoor Madhusoodhanan Nair and Sona Nair, among others, also will participate.
“We invite constructive suggestions from the public on effective waste management methods,” said the Mayor, requesting participation of the public for the convention.
The Mayor said: “As per the decision of the council, ward-level protection committees (WPC) were formed in every ward. The duties of WPC members are to identify revenue land to set up mini waste management plants at their respective wards. They must also find locations where waste is usually dumped and must take steps for its disposal.”
The City Protection Committee and ward-level protection committees must provide awareness on the need for decentralised waste management, the Mayor said.
On the criticism of Shashi Tharoor MP, the Mayor said that Tharoor has not spent a single penny for waste management in city. “I had invited Tharoor to visit Vilappilsala waste treatment plant. Being a resident of Delhi, he could at least visit the waste treatment plants there. The Vilappilsala plant is far better than the plant in Delhi,” she said.