CHENNAI: Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy on Wednesday introduced two separate bills to amend Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act of 1994, to curb indiscriminate disposal of septage on waterbodies in rural areas and to make it a duty of the village panchayats to handle the solid waste in a scientific manner.
Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Fourth Amendment) Act, 2024, includes detailed measures to regulate the operation and movement of the lorries or any other vehicles used for decanting of septic tanks. It also covers transportation of faecal sludge and septage to ensure their safe disposal in village panchayat areas.
A new section to be introduced to the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act of 1994 through this amendment said, “No person shall collect, transport or dispose faecal sludge or septage from any building, whether used for residential or commercial or institutional purposes, within the panchayat limits, without a valid licence granted under the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act, 1998.”
However, the bill said that no such licence is necessary for the collection, transportation and disposal of sludge or septage by any local authority or statutory board of the government.
Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Fifth Amendment) Act, 2024, the second bill introduced by Periyasamy, inserted a section to the 1994 Act saying, “It shall be the duty of panchayat to manage the solid waste so as to keep the public places clean by adopting a system of collection of segregated waste at source and its transportation, processing and disposal of solid waste scientifically in a place specifically allotted for this purpose.”
While it was already the responsibility of the local bodies to manage their solid waste in a scientific manner as per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, an amendment was needed to the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act to “cast a duty on the villages” to carry it out.
Meanwhile, HR and CE Minister PK Sekarbabu introduced a bill to omit clause (j) of sub-section (1) of section 66 of the HR and CE Act which says, “A person shall be disqualified for being appointed as and for being a trustee of any religious institution if he is suffering from leprosy”.
This is being done to eliminate the stigmatic disability and discrimination against the persons suffering from leprosy, the bill said.