Blame game over waste management in Thiruvananthapuram

The war of words over waste management in the capital city escalated on Wednesday with Mayor V.V. Rajesh accusing the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leaders of attempting to sabotage the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation’s waste management efforts. The CPI(M) on the other hand accused the Mayor of levelling false allegations to hide the Corporation’s failure in managing waste.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Mr. Rajesh alleged that one of the persons arrested on Tuesday for alleged illegal collection of waste and dumping in canals had links with the CPI(M).

“An unauthorised mafia has been involved in the collection of waste in the city. They then proceed to dump the collected waste into the canals. Shameer, the CPI(M) worker from Chala, had two days ago attacked the Corporation’s sanitation workers when they attempted to stop him from dumping waste in the Amayizhanjan canal. After the police launched an investigation, he went into hiding and was yesterday arrested from near the Tamil Nadu border. As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has over the past six months of its stint in the Corporation earned a good impression from the general public, the CPI(M) leaders are attempting to dump waste all around the city and spread fake news,” alleged Mr. Rajesh.

Left Democratic Front (LDF) Parliamentary party leader S.P. Deepak accused the Mayor of personally targeting CPI(M) leaders for pointing out the shortcomings of the administration, instead of showing sincerity in correcting them. He alleged that at a time when garbage has piled up all over the city, the sanitation system has collapsed and infectious diseases have spread widely, the Mayor is making contradictory statements instead of giving clear answers to the questions raised by the people, the media and the Opposition.

“The LDF had pointed out serious shortcomings in the cleaning up after Attukal Pongala. But the city administration is proceeding with the same negligence without learning any lessons from it. Even though the pre-monsoon cleaning was a complete failure, the Mayor is trying to escape by blaming other agencies for its failure. More than half of the 563 aerobic bins installed for waste management are dilapidated. The rest are full of waste and useless. Only two of the 10 biogas plants are operational. Heaps of plastic waste are rising in various parts of the city. The failure to renew existing contracts or award new contracts has made the situation worse,” said Mr. Deepak.

CPI(M) leader V.K. Prasanth, a former Mayor, said that the breakdown of the system of decentralised waste management implemented by the LDF under the current administration has led to the acute waste problem in the city at present.

“The basic lesson of waste management is to separate and process it scientifically. For this, efforts were made under the leadership of the LDF with public participation in the past. This made it possible to significantly reduce the amount of waste in public places. The Corporation had prepared efficient facilities to collect all types of waste, including plastic, e-waste, bottles, textiles and paper waste. The BJP announced that it would set up a centralised waste management system following the Indore model for waste management as soon as it came to power. Steps were taken to dismantle the decentralised system that was operating efficiently in the city, which led to the current situation,” he said in a statement.