‘Chennai Corporation lying about existence of dump yard’

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on Dec 13, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/'Corporation-lying-about-existence-of-dump-yard'/342766.html

CHENNAI: While the Chennai Corporation maintains that the Kodungaiyur dumping yard came into existence even before any human settlement came about in the locality, people residing the area for more than four decades dismiss the civic body’s theory as a ‘blatant lie’ to get the Centre’s nod for setting up an  integrated solid waste management plant there.

According to local residents, dumping of garbage began only during the mid-80s while residential colonies sprung up around the area since the 70s.

Ganeshan, a local resident, told City Express, “The particular site, where garbage is now being dumped, was once a green patch of land and grass farm. Grass collected from the farm was used as cattle feed for cows at the Madhavaram Milk Colony and also given to the animals kept at a zoo located at the Moore Market complex.”

According to the residents, the civic body, in the early 1980s, used to dump garbage at a site near the IOC terminal in Korukkupet. After the local people resisted, the dumping activities shifted to another location called Ezhil Nagar in Korukkupet.

When the Ezhil Nagar residents also protested, the civic body gradually shifted the dumping activities near the grass farm.

When the locals here too protested the move, the civic body silently constructed a new bridge inside the farm and has now made it a ‘full-fledged’ dumping yard.

Ironically, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), in its detailed map of the city, has listed the Kodungaiyur dumping yard under sites for ‘Institutional Use’.