Source : The Hindu Date : 26.06.2009
Corporation keen on tackling pig menace
Special Correspondent
| To move court for a directive: Corporation Commissioner T.T.Balsamy |
— PHOTO: R.M.RAJARATHINAM. 
Debate: Mayor S.Sujatha chairing a meeting of the Corporation Council in Tiruchi on Thursday.
TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation has planned to approach the courts to get a directive on tackling the health hazard posed by stray pigs in the city, said Corporation Commissioner T. T. Balsamy.
Since there is Supreme Court verdict against shooting down pigs, the Corporation has been hard-pressed to find a way out. Despite repeated warnings, people rearing pigs were not moving away from the city. There is no other option but to initiate criminal action against those rearing pigs in the interest of public health. “We have decided to take the issue to the court and explain the situation so that a suitable directive could be obtained,” Mr.Balsamy said responding to a flurry of complaints from councillors over the pig menace during an ordinary meeting of the Corporation Council here on Thursday.
The Commissioner said he has already held discussions with the government pleaders and hoped that the problem would be brought to an end soon. A section of the councillors also urged the Corporation to confiscate the stray cattle in the City.
Water source
The Commissioner dismissed fears expressed by the AIADMK floor leader J.Srinivasan over the dependability of the water source for the drinking water supply augmentation scheme being executed in the city. The sites for the collector wells of the scheme on the Coleroon River bed have been identified after extensive tests, he maintained. Once the scheme was implemented, equitable and abundant supply would be ensured to all parts of the city, he maintained. The meeting witnessed a brief exchange of heated words between the AIADMK and DMK councillors.
Earlier, Mayor S.Sujatha, who chaired her first meeting after assuming office, assured the councillors that she would work constructively to bring in more development schemes for the City in consultation with the elected representatives and residents organisations.
Responding to complaints about illegal pumping of water using motors by some residents in the city, Ms.Sujatha said a special drive would be taken up zone-wise to check the practice. Mr.Balsamy instructed the officials to form flying-squads to conduct surprise inspections to check the problem.
Solid Waste Management
An Integrated Solid Waste Management programme for the Tiruchi Corporation and the neighbouring municipalities of Manapparai, Thuvakudi and Kulithalai is likely to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs.70.13 crores.
The cluster-based solid waste management project will be implemented through the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd., with World Bank assistance. The project is being implemented in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The Tiruchi cluster has been selected for the project in Tamil Nadu, Corporation Commissioner T.T.Balsamy informed the Corporation Council on Thursday.
The Corporation could get a subsidy of up to 30 per cent of the project cost and it would have to contribute 10 per cent from its own funds. Sixty per cent of the project cost would be raised as loan. Alternatively, the project could also be implemented under the build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) scheme, Mr.Balsamy said. He was speaking after a presentation on the project by the Community Consulting India Private Ltd, a consultant commissioned by the TNUIFSL to prepare the detailed project report.
The project seeks to adopt a regional landfill programme for the towns in the cluster and improve the solid waste handling and management in the urban local bodies. It would bring about a holistic approach to handle about 460 tonnes of solid wastes generated a day in the four local bodies. Of this, nearly 424 tonnes of solid wastes is being generated in Tiruchi city alone. According to consultants, nearly 78 per cent of the solid waste generated in the city could be converted into fertilizer (compost) and another 7.5 per cent could be recycled.
The project would seek to ensure 100 per cent source segregation (of degradable and non-degradable wastes), provision of collection bins at the households, standardised and synchronised transport of the collected waste, creation of an integrated waste management complex and marketing compost. Non-degradable wastes would be disposed through landfill. A waste processing facility would be established under the project besides a regional landfill facility.
Once executed, it would bring in a annual revenue of about Rs.17.93 crores through sale of compost, recycling and carbon credit, according to the project report.
