TIRUPPUR: The Pollution Control Board (PCB) has instructed Tiruppur Corporation officials to regulate garbage dumping at an abandoned stone quarry in Kalampalayam and instructed the civic body to submit a report on the matter.
Sources said that about 700 tonnes of garbage are collected daily from the 60 wards. Of this, 300 tonnes are sent to micro-composting centers (MCC) and private contractors. However, around 350 to 400 tonnes of garbage are dumped in an abandoned stone quarry.
Based on this, R Sathish Kumar, state secretary of the Legal Awareness Wing of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Protection Association, filed a petition through the Mudhalvarin Mugavari scheme on March 5.
Following his complaint, the PCB has instructed the corporation administration to submit a report in this regard.
M Senthil Kumar, PCB district environmental engineer, in his letter to Tiruppur Corporation Commissioner, stated that they had received a complaint from R Sathish Kumar on March 5 regarding the dumping of municipal solid waste in a quarry, it being set on fire and the waste emitting noxious gases.”
He added, “In this connection, the corporation has to handle, treat, and dispose of the waste dumped in the abandoned quarry and take necessary precautionary measures within a week to avoid firing municipal solid waste and curb the generation of smoke and noxious gases.”
Responding to this, Commissioner S Ramamoorthy said, “We did not dump garbage at the quarry intentionally. Instead, we are dumping it there because we have no alternative place. It is common for methane gas to emanate from garbage during the summer, and sometimes, fires occur. However, we continue to monitor it and are taking appropriate steps as well.”
He added, “We are continuously reducing the amount of garbage dumped in the quarry through alternative measures. For example, we have appointed separate contractors to handle meat waste and embroidery waste.
We are making arrangements to send plastic waste to cement factories. Next, the Bio-CNG plant and Material Recovery Facility (MRF) centre facilities will be available soon. After that, garbage dumping in Kalampalayam will be completely stopped.”
“We will give our due reply to the PCB,” he further said.