TIRUCHY: The State government on Wednesday announced that Kallakudi Town Panchayat has been named the best town panchayat for developing one of the best solid waste management disposal systems in the State.
The government announced a list of corporations, municipalities and town panchayats selected for the Chief Minister's award, which will be given at a ceremony during the Independence Day celebrations.
Kallakudi town, which is spread over 11 sq km and has a population of 13,416, was chosen for its dedicated and effective system of solid waste management that has been implemented since December 2019.
Even as several City Corporations are grappling with the challenge of recycling waste, Kallakudi has implemented a waste management system under which garbage collected from every doorstep is returned to the public as value-added products after being converted into manure, fertilizer, door mats and bio-gas. Through this method, the town panchayat has been able to clear as much as 3.5 tonnes of garbage every day and recycle it.
S Sukul Ameed, Executive Officer of the town panchayat, said, "Garbage is considered black gold. If properly segregated and recycled, we can create invaluable materials from the waste and we have been successfully recycling the waste since 2019. We have a resource recovery park in which all the separated garbage is turned into products, including compost, manure and bio-gas among others."
Sanitary workers collect the waste from the doorstep of the household in different categories. Households are instructed to make sure that biodegradable waste is collected separately.
Sathya Narayanan, a resident of the panchayat, said, "All that is turned into manure and sold to farmers. Citrus peels are turned into scrubs, banana leaf waste is fed to livestock in the panchayat and collected as cow dung, egg shells are turned into fertilizers for rose plants. Every single piece of garbage generated from our households is, in one way or another, recycled and returned to us."
The town panchayat has also been recycling tailoring waste such as bits of clothes by shredding them and turning them into door mats. While residents are delighted with the recognition for their efforts to recycle waste, they hoped the government fulfils their long-pending demands such as new roads and control of ecological damage.
Kallakudi, apart from being an agriculture dependent area, is also home to a number of cement factories. Chinnadurai, a farmer and social activist from Kallakudi, said, "Several of our demands -- new connecting roads between Kallakudi and Chidambaram National Highway, reduction in pollution generated through burning of waste in cement factories and resumption of train activity in the Kallakudi station are yet to be addressed. We hope the government looks into all those too."