A banner flutters in the stale breeze over a vast stretch of garbage dumped at Muttathara. And the irony, it reads ‘Please don’t turn the place into another Vilappilsala’ in Malayalam.
The large swath of land along the Kazhakkottam-Kovalam stretch has turned into a favourite spot for the litterbugs, who are all the more happy since there are no surveillance cameras in place or law enforcers deputed here. But it will be wrong to put all the blame on the people? Nearby residents say that the city corporation, which is expected to prevent such practices, itself is the main culprit. The dumping goes on as usual and the banners remain mute spectators to the deeds.
Now let’s journey back to the place a year or so ago. The residents cheered on as the then Mayor K Chandrika and her crew, including volunteers, shovelled large quantities of garbage in an effort to clean up the place under the ‘Ente Nagaram Sundara Nagaram’ campaign. The target area set had been from World Market to Kovalam. Even, special cleaning drives were scheduled to be carried out in accordance to a fixed timetable. But everything remains only on the paper. If the initiative had been successfully carried, the present scene could have been avoided.
People blame it on the lack of a decentralised waste management mechanism, but it should be remembered that this place does not lack sufficient space in order to initiate such common solutions. “Right now the corporation has not put forth any proposal to implement a decentralised garbage mechanism at Muttathara and we are thinking of submitting a proposal regarding this at the earliest and take steps to end this trend of littering public space. Search is on for an ideal site for the setting up of the plant,” said Anju S R, Muttathara ward councillor.