KOTTAYAM: “If garbage is thrown into public places, water sources or private lands, legal action will be initiated under sections 219 S and 219 T of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act 1994,” reads a notification board installed on the way to the house of C D Adarsh Kumar, a fish farmer in Poonjar Thekkerkara grama panchayat in Kottayam.
While the board mentions the many actions taken by the government to secure the coveted ‘garbage-free’ status — Kottayam has already achieved it — Adarsh’s ordeal paints a different picture.
For the past one year, he has been struggling to get the fishpond on his property cleaned as it has become an unofficial landfill due to the negligence of panchayat authorities.
It all started a few years ago when the Suchitwa Mission established a Material Collection Centre in an abandoned anganwadi building near Adarsh’s house at Kallekkulam in Poonjar South to store the garbage collected by Haritha Karma Sena.
While carrying out the maintenance of the building a year ago, the accumulated garbage was relocated to an open area near an adjacent stream.
However, in the subsequent monsoon season, the garbage washed into the stream, eventually finding its way to Adarsh’s fishpond and disrupting his farming activities.
“The pond is now filled with a large pile of waste, including plastic and glass bottles, sanitary napkins and other plastic items. I have nowhere to relocate it, even if I clean the pond myself. Also, the negligence of the panchayat has led to this crisis.
Hence, it should find a solution,” says Adarsh. Adarsh had constructed the pond on 30 cents of land availing a bank loan of Rs 10 lakh and received Rs 75,000 as a subsidy for fish farming in 2018-19.
Efforts on to remove waste, says civic body
Adarsh had also ventured into paddy cultivation and duck farming, and established a biodiversity park on his 4.5 acres of land.
“If singer M G Sreekumar was fined Rs 25,000 for throwing a cover of garbage into a lake, how much should the panchayat be fined for dumping a pile of waste in my pond,” asks Adarsh.
Highlighting his troubles in resuming fish farming, Adarsh submitted a request to the panchayat secretary on July 26 last year, but no action was taken. Adarsh then submitted a petition before Local Self-Government Minister M B Rajesh.
On the intervention of the minister’s office, the remaining garbage near the anganwadi was removed. However, his pond stayed contaminated.
A winner of several awards, including Paristhithi Mithra, Adarsh is now struggling to manage farming activities due to the waste menace.
He was selected for a project involving a bral fish (snake head fish) seed development unit under the fisheries department. However, his inability to develop the unit due to the current condition of his pond resulted in his removal from the same.
Meanwhile, Poonjar Thekkekara grama panchayat president George Mathew told TNIE that efforts are under way to remove the waste from Adarsh’s pond.
“The attempt was once disrupted due to the high water level in the pond. With water receding in summer, we will remove it at the earliest,” he said.