Thiruvananthapuram Corporation launches cleaning drive

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation on Thursday opened its pre-monsoon cleaning drive, but is in a quandary over the disposal of the collected waste. Reason - all the areas that were designated by the Corporation after December for burying garbage have hit the saturation point. The State Government has not responded to a request by the Corporation that government plots be released for garbage burial.
 Meanwhile, Mayor K Chandrika said the Corporation planned to raise the issue at a state-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Friday. ‘’We started the pre-monsoon drive on the Connemara Market premises, Palayam, on Thursday, but disposal poses a big question mark. The government is convening a state-level meet on pre-monsoon cleaning on Friday, where we will raise the issue,’’ Chandrika said.
 The pre-monsoon drive, for which the Corporation is deploying daily-wage workers, will be on till May 31. After garbage collection stopped in December, the Corporation had started burying waste in selected spots. Now, a beleaguered Corporation is running from pillar to post searching for new locations.
 Earlier, the civic authority had requested the government to release government-owned lands - the Poojappura Central Prison compound and the Kerala State Housing Board campus, among others - to dump waste. But the government conveniently ignored the request.
 An attempt by the government and Corporation to dump waste at a quarry in Vellar was dropped following a huge public outcry.
A Cabinet sub-committee appointed to look into the reopening of the Vilappilsala plant as well as alternative technologies has not yet been able to reach a decision.

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