Tiruppur Corporation faces Pongal deadline to halt dumping of untreated wastes in abandoned quarries at Pongupalayam 

Environmental groups demand Tiruppur Corporation to stop dumping untreated waste in Pongupalayam village quarries before Pongal festival.

Environmental groups backed by political parties have set a deadline until Pongal to the Tiruppur Corporation for stopping the dumping of untreated wastes in abandoned quarries at Pongupalayam village.

A delegation held discussions with Corporation Commissioner S. Ramamoorthy and expressed anguish over the air, water and soil pollution caused in the village.

Following the meeting, R. Sathish Kumar, State secretary of the legal awareness wing of Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Protection Association, said the villagers in Pongupalayam would start impounding the garbage-laden vehicles if the Corporation failed to take alternative measures before Pongal festival.

Citing the directive of the National Green Tribunal to the local body to clear the quarries of the dumped garbage, the delegation sought to know the reasons for the shortcomings in the implementation of the solid waste management project under the aegis of Tiruppur Smart City Limited.

The delegation had with it evidences of the dumping of untreated medical and other wastes and also carcasses of dogs into the quarry.

Under the Smart Cities Mission, the local body had established 13 new decentralised Micro Compost Centres and three Waste Segregation and Resource Centres. The 13 new micro compost centres were in addition to the 16 existing ones.

Though the Corporation had invested ₹22.10 crore for the Solid Waste Management project under the Smart Cities Mission, the dumping of hundreds of tonnes of mixed waste could not be stopped.