Chennai: Adyar riverbank continues to be garbage dump, says NGT panel

CHENNAI: Dumping of solid municipal waste along the banks of the Adyar river in the city’s western suburbs continues unabated, according to an inspection report submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) directed the Kundrathur Panchayat Union to pay 42 lakh as compensation for polluting the water bodies. But the local body has neither paid this amount nor taken adequate steps to streamline the water disposal process.
Burning of garbage in and around Gerugambakkam, Iyyappanthangal and adjacent areas attracted the NGT's attention. A joint-committee was constituted to visit the areas and submit recommendations to put an end to these violations.
This committee after an inspection in July recommended that the local body clear the accumulated waste near Gerugambakkam, install a micro composting centre (MCC) and a pyrolator for solid waste magnetic decomposition).
During the hearing of the case on December 17, the committee told the tribunal that unsegregated waste was dumped at the same site, the micro composting centre was not functioning and a pyrolator was yet to be installed.
At Iyyappanthangal, the committee said, the process of clearing accumulated waste was incomplete and not enough steps were taken to prevent fresh dumping of waste along catchment areas of the Porur lake. The local body, which had shifted a portion of the accumulated waste to the Kodungaiyur dump yard, attributed pending work to heavy rain and water stagnation in the area.
Besides this, the committee noted, the authorities had installed only two pillars without any sort of barricades or fencing to stop miscreants from dumping waste. TOI had written about such violations in its news reports in October and more recently in December.
Since the local body has not paid the environmental compensation too, the NGT Southern Zone directed the TNPCB to conduct a separate inspection and submit its report and identify persons responsible for this.
The director of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department has also been asked to submit further reports before the next hearing of the case, which is scheduled on December 31.