Public oppose dumping of garbage in stone quarry at Tiruppur's Pongupalayam
TIRUPPUR: Solid waste management in Tiruppur city has become a major headache for the municipal corporation. Clearing of garbage in the wards has been disrupted for the past few days due to public protests against the dumping of garbage in an abandoned stone quarry in Pongupalayam village. This has forced the Tiruppur City Municipal Corporation to look for an alternative stone quarry to dump garbage.
About 600 to 700 tonnes of garbage is collected daily from all the 60 wards of the city. Out of this 150 tonnes of garbage is sent to Micro Composting Centres (MCC) every day. Allegedly, around 150 tonnes are sent to recycling projects. The rest is dumped in an abandoned stone quarry in Pongupalayam village in Tiruppur.
However, the local public and social activists in Pongupalayam are opposing this, alleging environmental issues. The public have been preventing trucks from dumping garbage for the past few days. As a result, garbage-clearing work in the corporation wards has been disrupted for a few days. Garbage piles up on roadsides in many places. Faced with this crisis, the Corporation is actively engaged in the process of finding another stone quarry to dump garbage.
Speaking to TNIE, Corporation Commissioner S Ramamoorthy said, "We dump garbage in a government-abandoned quarry in Pongupalayam. We carry out the appropriate maintenance procedures there. However, the public in the area opposes the dumping of garbage. They have been blocking trucks for the past few days. We are looking for an alternative stone quarry. It will be identified within a week."
"Dumping garbage in stone quarries is not a permanent solution. But we have no other choice right now. We are looking at two alternative projects for solid waste management. As part of it, we have given a work order to a private company to set up a bio-CNG plant on seven acres on Kangeyam road in Tiruppur.
Around 200 tonnes of waste can be managed at the centre. But in the final stages, a person filed a case against this. Therefore, we are looking for an alternative location for this project," the Commissioner added.
"Apart from this, the municipal administration department has planned to soon set up a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) centre on the border of Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts. The garbage from Tiruppur and Coimbatore municipal corporations will be sent here and segregated. If this project is implemented, solid waste management issues in the city will be solved," he added.
Meanwhile, Tiruppur MP K Subbarayan, in his letter to the chief minister, said, "The Corporation is struggling to remove garbage from residential areas due to public protests. Garbage remains uncollected on city streets and roadsides. This has affected the public. Therefore, the government should send a special team of experts on a wartime basis to Tiruppur to find a permanent solution to this issue."