An eyesore

Raising a stink

'The administration will never let anything good to continue.' That was what every other family in Anna Nagar said and Talk and spoke to all of them over the past two weeks.
They were justifiably angry. For, after four years garbage clearance, which was privatised in about 25 wards out of 52 in Ambattur Municipality is facing rough weather due to lack of dumping place at Athipet. The scheme kicked off in 2002 with great enthusiasm
Since then houses and apartments in Ambattur Municipal area have grown multifold. Figures show that 150-200 tonnes of
garbage is generated every day. Private operators clear 90-100 tonnes. Taking into account the enormous volume, the Ambattur Municipality bought 18 acres at Kalli Kuppam and the Avadi municipality 10.45 acres. Both municipalities were using this place, but now the local residents objected to Ambattur garbage being brought to Avadi. The officials were in a fix, so they identified another 22 acres at Pammathi Kulam, and have sought the Pollution Control Board's clearance. And, that is yet to come.
Meanwhile who suffers? The people, who else. Any time, any day, lorries overflowing with litter can be seen parked near the Ambattur Municipality office and on MTH road. All efforts by the private operators to clean the backlog failed and over the past few days, garbage is piled up in almost all the houses in TVS Colony, Officers’ Colony and the surrounding areas and the bins kept at various transit points are full and overflowing. Unable to keep
garbage in the houses for more days, the residents have started throwing the carry bags with garbage in the street corners posing an ugly sight. To add more precisely on its implications, as a final step, the garbage collectors started burning it at one of the collection points at TVS Colony.
'It is already smelling very bad in the area. Now, they are also polluting the air,' lamented a local resident.
If this situation continues for a few more days, outbreak of an epidemic is certain, the residents feel.
A simple question these residents ask. Will the Municipal administration department of which Minister Stalin is in charge do something about this?