Vellalore residents demand relocation of dump yard, put up black flags at houses

Residents of Vellalore protest against dump yard & lack of bus terminus; 1,000 tonnes of garbage dumped daily; foul smell & contamination of groundwater; deaths due to respiratory problems; NGT directive to desist from dumping & establish micro-compost centres; DMK govt. reluctance to operate integrated bus terminus.

Residents of Vellalore in the vicinity of the Corporation dump yard put up black flags in front of their houses demanding relocation of the dump yard, and early operation of the integrated bus terminus in the locality.

Through the protest organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the residents conveyed their anguish over what they described as the civic body’s lack of attention to the travails they were subjected to due to the foul smell emanating from the accumulated garbage in the 400-acre dump yard and the contamination of groundwater.

According to the residents, 1,000 tonnes of garbage generated from the 100 wards on a daily basis was being dumped in the yard that has been in existence for the last 22 years. The civic body was not doing enough to treat the mounds of legacy waste, they complained.

The stench was suffocating the residents and there had been deaths of residents due to respiratory problems. The residents had been forced into a situation of leaving their houses to live elsewhere, K. Vasantharajan, Coimbatore South District president of the BJP, alleged.

The Corporation had not abided by the 2018 directive of the National Green Tribunal to desist from dumping wastes, and to carry out solid waste treatment through establishing micro-compost centres area-wise, Mr. Vasantharajan claimed.

The reluctance of the DMK government to operate the integrated bus terminus, for which ₹44 crore tax money had already been spent, was deplorable, he said.