COIMBATORE: A Monitoring Committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), led by Judge P Jothimani, conducted an inspection at the Vellalore dump yard on Thursday.
This follows a complaint lodged by V Eswaran, coordinator of Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam accusing the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) of not keeping its assurance given to NGT (Southern Bench) in 2018 that it will clear 15.5 lakh m3 of waste from the yard in one year.
Further, the petitioner said CCMC had assured that it will reduce the volume of garbage brought to the yard by 500T per day by setting up 65 Micro Composting Yards (MCC) in the city.
In September, the petitioner lodged a review petition stating this was not done and around 19 lakh m3 of waste has accumulated in the yard.
“As dumping of waste continues in Vellalore, people living in the locality are suffering from air pollution and house fly menace. CCMC had assured that it will set up 65 micro compost yards but failed to do so. Only 35 composed yards have been set up so far. Of this, four are in operation,” Eswaran said and appealed to the State government to allocate funds to clear waste from the yard.
Speaking to TNIE, M Prathap, Commissioner of CCMC, said, “We have reduced 50 per cent of waste from 15.5 lakh m3 in one year and set up 35 MCCs. Of this, 12 are functional. Steps have been initiated to increase the number of MCCs. Based on the population in 2017, we have made the assurance. Now, the population has increased. It resulted in incoming of wastage higher to Vellalore.”