Achieving a new milestone in the history of the neighbourhood, Pammal Municipality has so far removed 21,200 cubic metres of garbage from the dump-yard here, thereby retaining its ‘zero waste’ tag.
It may be noted that the Municipality was the first in the city to get the said tag, due to its effective solid waste management technique that involved moving 10 tonnes of trash to tin factories in Ariyalur every week, spending over Rs 15,000 for each trip.
But early last year, due to lack of funds, garbage was sent to Vengadamangalam recycling plant instead, which too didn’t last long. At one point, garbage ended up being dumped on the roadside leading the neighbourhood to lose its coveted badge.
But as a turning point, during the fag end of last year, Regional Monitoring Committee of the Southern Wing of National Green Tribunal (NGT), under the leadership of Justice P Jyothimani, ordered the implementation of the bio-mining process at the Pammal landfill, as part of a mega initiative covering four Municipalities.
Under this and with the Pammal Municipality working in tandem with the NGT, so far, 21,200 cubic metres of garbage has been removed, with only around 30,000 cubic metres left.
Officials said, work is taking place on a war-footing basis and will be completed in a month or two. Sources said, NGT officials including Justice Jyothimani and others, recently inspected the on-going biomining activity, micro composting centre at Anakaputhur and waste processing facility at Pallavaram, expressing satisfaction in the work undertaken so far.
Speaking on this, an activist from Radha Nagar, K Damodharan, said, “It’s heartening to note the effective waste management at Pammal. I wish the same initiatives happen at Chrompet as well which is reeling under the clutches of water stagnation, poor roads and garbage dumped on the roadside. With the participation of the public, this can be possible anywhere in the city.”