The narrow Tutors Lane, only a few metres away from the Secretariat, General Hospital (GH), and St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, has become a waste dumping yard.
Heaps of garbage have been lying unattended here for several months now. The garbage heaps here represent the city’s mounting garbage crisis.
The filth occupies a good part of the road, making it difficult for pedestrians and two-wheeler riders to negotiate the stretch. The 25-odd families living in the area are the most affected.
“Stray dogs and rodents feast on the waste. Flies and mosquitoes swarm the place. The stench is nauseating,” says Pushpangathan, who runs a shop at the lane’s entrance on the GH side.
People from other places have been dumping garbage-filled plastic bags here, he says. “Once, the road got blocked with waste all over. The Corporation staff moved it to a corner of the road, leaving a strip for people to walk or ride a two-wheeler,” he says.
Prabhakar, a regular at the shop, says it is the responsibility of the public as well to keep the city clean. But, the people are left with no option than to dump the waste in the open, he says.
He sought to know from the city Corporation the rationale behind penalising those dumping waste on the road without giving them a viable option. The Corporation is at a loss to find short- and long-term solutions to the issue, Mr. Prabhakar says.
The civic body has been stating that there is a shortage of waste to run its two-tonne biogas plant inside the Palayam market.
