CHENNAI: 'Don’t convert Kodungaiyur into a dustbin'

By G Saravanan

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

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/don%E2%80%99t-convert-kodungaiyur-into-a-dustbin/342759.html

CHENNAI: With the Chennai Corporation authorities turning a blind eye to the sufferings of over the one lakh residents living in and around the highly-polluted Kodungaiyur dumping yard, the local residents, led by their MLA A Soundararajan, on Monday, hit the road seeking a permanent solution to the perennial problem. 

However, a local police team led by G Manoharan, Assistant Commissioner of Police (MKB Nagar range), detained the 100-odd agitators, including the MLA and a group of women, terming the protest illegal.

Though the 16 local resident welfare associations jointly applied for permission to hold a one-day agitation near the yard over 10 days ago, the local police rejected their plea last Saturday. According to the residents, the weekend rejection was a clear ploy by the police to avoid the resident associations from going to court for any direction on the agitation.

However, this did not deter the people from registering their protest against the Chennai Corporation’s lax attitude in solving the perennial issue.

Addressing the agitators, Soundararajan said, “I urge the Chennai Corporation to take a firm decision soon to relocate the highly polluting dumping yard from Kodungaiyur to somewhere else.”

Don't convert Kodungaiyur, a calm locality in north Chennai, to a dust bin of the whole of Chennai, he warned. 
“People living in these parts of North Chennai are undergoing untold agony ever since the dumping yard popped up three decades ago. instead of reducing the miseries of the locals who are already struggling to live near the yard with corrective measures, the civic body proposes to divert more garbage from added areas to the yard and the action is highly condemnable,” Soundararajan told the crowd.

The Chennai Corporation dumps nearly 3,200 tonnes of garbage every day at the site.