DINDIGUL: Reckless garbage dumping continues to remain a menace in Dindigul district, despite sanitary workers collecting garbage from households.
According to the District Rural Development Agency’s (DRDA) data, 1,432 spots were identified for cleaning in each Taluk — Thoppampatti (227), Palani (110 ), Guziliamparai (72), Athoor (86), Kodaikanal (83), Shanarpatti (108), Nilakottai (69), Vedasundar (67), Reddiarchatram (83), Dindigul Rural (86), Oddanchatram (186), Batlagundu (61), Nattam (108), Vadamadurai (69). These spots were identified as cleanliness target units (Swachhata Lakshit Ekayi count) as of November 11, 2024.
Virupatchi Panchayat secretary K Pichaimani said, "Sanitary workers and supervisors visit each street every morning to collect garbage and other domestic waste. Garbage collection ends around 11 am. Yet, villagers dump domestic waste in open places and other spots. We found five major spots in our village. Despite advising them, the villagers continue to dump their waste in these five major spots. Sanitary workers are forced to collect waste from these spots once every three or four days."
A sanitary worker said, "If we stop waste collection from households, and start clearing the garbage sites alone, villagers will become lazy and start dumping at more sites. This would create ecological issues, as some might also dump waste in rivers and waterbodies."
An official from the DRDA told TNIE, “The mission aims to remove all garbage spots in the village. But we are facing these complex issues. These garbage dumping sites were identified following an inspection by the Swachh Bharat Mission team, along with local sanitary workers.
Since these spots are mostly street corners, edges of marketplaces and vacant land, locals have been using them for decades. It is difficult to advise the villagers or choose an alternate site. We are planning to organise more awareness programmes to enable them to wait for sanitary workers to collect the waste from households.”