Colour bins distrubuted for people for garbage storage
Rural Industries Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy (second right) and Mayor R. Venkatachalam (fourth right) giving away garbage bins to the people in the city on Monday. Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran (second left) and Deputy Mayor N. Karthik (right) are in the picture.The Coimbatore Corporation began giving bins to people on Monday to store segregated garbage. Each house will get two bins – one green and the other white.People should store in the green bin the biodegradable waste they generate every day and hand it over to the Corporation workers every morning. Non-biodegradable waste should be kept in the white bin. The biodegradable waste will be converted into manure and the non-biodegradable will be disposed of through the landfill method.The bins are being distributed as part of the Corporation’s Rs.96-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management Project.Launching the distribution, Rural Industries Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy said this was a historical day for the Corporation, given the battle the city had been fighting against the menace of garbage.
Garbage was an issue that could not be swept aside as something very ordinary, he said. He pointed out that visitors to any city would first talk of its cleanliness. This was why anyone who visited Singapore always talked of how clean its roads were.The success of the waste management scheme depended a lot on the cooperation of the public and the commitment of the conservancy workers. While the public should desist from dumping garbage in the drainage canals and along roads, the conservancy workers should promptly collect waste stored in the bins.
The Minister also criticised those who dumped debris in the drainage, saying this choked the canals that were supposed to take waste water out of the city. “These people must be punished and a stringent law should be enacted for this,” he suggested.“Apart from cooperation from the public, the councillors should be deeply involved, especially the Chairman of the Corporation Council’s Standing Committee on Health (P. Nachimuthu),” he said.Mr. Palanisamy hoped that the new scheme would bring about a permanent solution to the problems the residential colonies in the suburbs such as Vellalore and Kurichi faced from accumulating garbage at the civic body’s compost yard.
Mayor R. Venkatachalam said street plays would be held and posters and banners explaining the features of the scheme distributed as part of the drive to promote among the people segregation of waste at source. Volunteers among the residents would be roped in to carry out awareness drives.The people were confronted by problems in the disposal of garbage every morning. A combined effort involving various sections would help in creating a clean city, he said.Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran said that so far there had been no scientific method of disposing garbage. Despite many organisations, including Government agencies and voluntary bodies, stressing segregation of waste at source, people still had not learnt its benefits.The new scheme was aimed at establishing this system firmly in the city. “We will provide training to all in proper segregation and storage and also disposal,” he said.
Deputy Mayor N. Karthik said waste management was essential not only to create litter-free zones but also for a disease-free city. This was needed in a fast growing industrial area such as Coimbatore.Road Safety Council member and former Member of Parliament M. Ramanathan suggested that 10 members of every political party should go on a door-to-door campaign to promote the scheme just as they canvassed for votes.He assailed those who dumped garbage into the subway under the Avanashi Road Flyover.Mr. Nachimuthu noted the concerted efforts by the Corporation over the last three months to get the scheme moving.
