PCB says Chitlapakkam dumpsite unauthorised, yet appeals by locals to clear it fall on deaf ears

By Samuel Merigala  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 30th October 2017 01:22 AM  |  

Dumpyard near the Chitlapakkam lake is a health hazard | Sunish P Surendran

CHENNAI: An RTI petition filed by a local activist has reaffirmed that the dumpyard near the Chitlapakkam lake and the police station is unauthorised. 

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, to whom the RTI application was addressed, has clearly stated that permission has not been given to the Chitlapakkam town panchayat to process and dispose of solid waste in the area. P Viswanathan, petitioner and president of the Chitlapakkam Residents Welfare Association, describes the mounds of unsegregated waste towering behind the Chitlapakkam police station as “The Himalayas” partly because it keeps getting bigger and partly because all their repeated attempts to bring it down have been futile. 

“Closure of this dumpyard which borders a police station, government school and the Chitlapakkam lake is something we have been fighting for since 2000,” said Viswanathan. It was in 2000 when the TNPCB first issued a show-cause notice to the Chitlapakkam town panchayat for its irresponsible disposal of solid waste. The town panchayat flinched and began dumping waste in the nearby burial grounds. After intervention of the Kancheepuram Collector, arrangements were made for waste to be dumped in Perungudi. “At that time we didn’t have a vehicle to transport waste to Perungudi,” said an official at the Chitlapakkam town panchayat. 

Waste continued to be dumped near the lake despite repeated assurances from the panchayat that dumping would shift to Keerapakkam, where 20 acres of land has been allocated for waste from town panchayats. 
On July 24, Viswanathan filed a complaint to the Chief Minister’s special cell regarding the illegal dumping of waste near a government school and sought special permission for the 15 tonnes of waste generated every day from Chitlapakkam to be dumped in Venkatamangalam landfill.

The complaint was forwarded to the District Collectorate which said on August 8 that arrangements would be made for collection and dumping of waste in Venkatamangalam landfill, where the solid waste of the municipalities is scientifically processed. The Collectorate further said that the dumpyard at Chitlapakkam would be closed and the existing waste removed from the 0.63-acre dumpyard. However, no action has been taken and partially segregated waste continues to be dumped and mounds grow bigger. 

Irregular waste collection, segregation

The Chitlapakkam town panchayat outsourced conservancy work to an NGO called Hand in Hand in 2008. An MOU was signed where the panchayat agreed to let NGO bring in 56 workers and provide implements required for conservancy work 
After nine years, the number of conservancy workers has increased to just 61 in the MOU while the population has drastically increased in the area 
K Kannan, supervisor for Hand in Hand at Chitlapakkam, told Express that out of the 61 workers, there are at least 10 absentees every day. “Finding people do conservancy work is difficult. So we can’t force them to be regular,” he said
“There are around 12,800 people living per square kilometre in Chitlapakkam. Still depending on an NGO with irregular workers to do conservancy work is stupidity on the part of the town panchayat,” said S Chandrasekar, a member of the Chitlapakkam Residents Welfare Association