TIRUNELVELI: A huge volume of Kerala’s biomedical, food and plastic waste, particularly from Thiruvananthapuram Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) and Credence Private Hospital, has been dumped at multiple locations, including on patta lands and a waterbody in Kodaganallur and Palavoor villages. When TNIE visited the spot on Monday, landowners alleged that no action was taken despite complaints.
“Waste from Kerala is being dumped on our land for the past several months. A few days after the dumping, the miscreants would burn it and dump new loads. Recently, they have started dumping heaps of waste, particularly biomedical waste from the Kerala government’s Thiruvananthapuram RCC and a Kerala-based private hospital, without burning it. As this dumping occurs at night, we cannot catch the culprits. We suspect that trucks, which come from Kerala to carry load from a paper mill in the vicinity, bring in this waste,” said J Santhanam, the supervisor of a tract of land in Kodaganallur village.
“I filed a complaint with the Suthamalli police last month. Since they did not register a case, I complained to the CM’s Special Cell on December 2. However, no action has been taken. The police can trace the trucks by locating them through CCTV cameras, installed near the Tasmac outlet, paper mill and a quarry. Waste has been dumped at five locations across 40 acres of land. However, neither the police nor the revenue officials visited the spot. In fact, after complaining to the police, three loads of waste were dumped on my land,” said Santhanam. M Subbaiah, a cattle farmer, said, “I herd my cattle in Palavoor village. My goats fell ill recently after drinking water contaminated with biomedical waste.”
Another woman cattle farmer said the local body officials were indifferent about taking action against the menace despite oral complaints. Santhanam demanded that the state government take steps to send the waste back to Kerala to prevent further illegal transportation of such waste. District Collector Dr K P Karthikeyan told TNIE that he has asked the local body officials and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to take action as per law.