Kerala Local Governance : A News Archive

Vilappilsala: court sends parties to mediation table

2012-02-29T23:11:00.000-08:00

Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday sent the issues relating to the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant to the mediation centre of the High Court for an amicable solution.

The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon referred the issues to the mediation centre when a petition filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation seeking a directive to deploy Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for implementing the court order on providing police protection for treatment of waste at the plant came up for hearing.

Talks today

The court directed the Secretary, Local Self-Governance Department; Secretary, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation; and the president and Secretary of the Vilappil grama panchayat to appear on March 1 before the mediation centre for amicably settling the issues.

The Bench was of the opinion that , the issues could be properly resolved through an amicable settlement if mediation method was adopted.

When the petition came up for hearing, the Advocate General suggested that the issues need to be resolved thorough mediation as the issues involved were sensitive ones. The police could not fully implement the order since a large number of agitated people in Vilappil, including women and girls, had gathered and resisted the attempts to take waste to the plant.

The City Corporation had said in its petition that the police had not provided protection for taking the leachate plant machinery that was brought from Pune to the Vilappilsala plant and implementing the High Court's directives.

Decision hailed

Special Correspondent writes from Kochi: The Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samiti has hailed the High Court's decision to leave the row over the garbage plant for mediation, terming it a vindication of its stand. The Samiti has asked that its functionaries be made a party to the mediation.

‘Blockade to continue'

Mr. Burhanuddin, president of the Samiti, toldThe Hinduthat the blockade of garbage trucks would continue until the government executed its December 21, 2011, decision for the shutdown of the garbage processing plant which had faced people's ire for 11 years.

He also wanted the government to pay compensation to the people who had “suffered various illnesses caused by the treatment plant.”

Corporation begins shifting garbage from Lalur dumping yard

2012-02-25T02:00:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Samara Samithy activist K.K. Omana offering lemon

juice to social activist K. Venu to end his 11-day

fast at the District Hospital in Thrissuron Friday

.— PHOTO: by Special Arrangement

K. Venu calls off hunger strike; warns of renewed agitation

Social activist K. Venu called off his 11-day fast on Friday as the Thrissur Corporation began shifting of accumulated garbage from the Lalur dumping yard.

Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy activist K.K. Omana offered Mr. Venu lemon juice to end the fast at the district hospital. He would be discharged from the hospital on Saturday.

Mr. Venu had continued his hunger strike at the district hospital after he was forcefully shifted by the police from the venue of the agitation in front of the corporation on Wednesday, stating that his heath condition was deteriorating.

“I will not claim that my agitation was a total success in finding a permanent solution to the six-decade-old Lalur garbage issue. But it could evoke some response,” Mr. Venu said.

On the direction of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, District Collector P.M. Francis called on the fasting activist at the hospital on Friday and requested him to end the fast.

The collector said a decision was taken in a meeting convened by the Chief Minister on Thursday to utilise the garbage at Lalur for constructing the Pullazhy-Kannoth bund road. The PWD had been entrusted with the work and Rs. 12 crore was handed over for the purpose, the collector said.

Opposition Leader V.S. Achutanandan also urged Mr. Venu to call of the hunger strike, said Samara Samithy leader T.K. Vasu.

The Samara Samithy finally took a decision to end the fast after the City Corporation started removal of accumulated garbage from the dumping yard, he said.

“We will monitor the situation for the next two months. If the accumulated garbage is not removed in two months, we will resume our agitation,” Mr. Vasu said.

In the next two months, the Samara Samithy will conduct a sensitisation campaign in the city to create awareness among the public on the importance of decentralised garbage treatment.

C.S. Srinivasan, the Standing Committee Chairman (Health) of the corporation, said the civic body was determined to clear the garbage from the Lalur dumping yard.

Government sitting on Centre's directive

2012-02-25T01:58:00.002-08:00

N.J. Nair

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Appointing ombudsman for complaints on MGNREGS

The State government is reportedly sitting over a Union Rural Development Ministry directive to establish an office of the ombudsman for expeditious disposal of complaints regarding the execution of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State.

On the basis of the directive on September 7, 2009, during the tenure of the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, a selection committee comprising the Chief Secretary and a Union Rural Development Ministry representative prepared a panel of experts, but it could not publish the list for eliciting public opinion as the Assembly elections were announced. Official sources toldThe Hinduhere that the United Democratic Front (UDF) government had not decided either on publishing the panel or draw up a new list. The appointment of the ombudsman was expected to lend more efficiency and transparency to the execution of the scheme.

For, it was specified that the selection should be made from among “persons of eminent standing and impeccable integrity with at least 20 years of experience in public administration, law, academics, social work, or management. No member of a political party should be considered for the post.” The tenure of the ombudsman, independent of the jurisdiction of the Central and State governments, was fixed at two years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65, whichever is earlier.

The State government was given the powers to specify the territorial jurisdiction of each ombudsman in terms of a district. Considering the number of cases, there was provision to appoint two deputy ombudsmen to dispose of the cases in each district.

Since confidentiality of the complainants was imperative, it was easy to expose corruption and nepotism in selecting beneficiaries and awarding jobs.

Other than the disposal of complaints, the ombudsman has to send monthly reports to the Chief Secretary and the nodal department recommending action against erring functionaries for their lapses in redressing complaints. It was mandated to furnish annual review reports on the scheme too. As many as 21 heads, including conduct of grama sabhas, registration of households and issue of job cards, demand for work, wage payment, gender discrimination, fund utilisation, quality of work, social audit, and record maintenance, were identified as key issues for filing complaints.

Civic body to distribute waste bins

2012-02-25T01:42:00.001-08:00

The Times of India (TOI)

February 24, 2012

KOCHI: In an effort to find a solution to the solid waste management issues, the Kalamaserry municipality will distribute waste bins to households with an intention of segregating waste at the source itself. As part of the Rs 14 lakh project that is being implemented by the local body under the JNNURM project, waste bins will be distributed to about 25,000 households.
Jamal Manakkadan, municipal chairman said that by implementing the project, they would be able to segregate waste at the source before it is taken to the dumping yard. ?Currently biodegradable and non-degradable waste is collected together, which needs to be segregated before it is processed and is a tedious task. Our aim is to provide two waste bins each to every household,? he said.
?Earlier, the waste was collected in plastic bags by Kudumbashree workers, who were collecting waste from households. By providing waste bins, we are planning to reduce the use of plastic bags in the locality,? said T S Aboobakkar, health standing committee chairman. ?We are also planning to call a meeting of the locals, health department and Kudumbashree workers to discuss about the issue,? he added.
The initiative is a part of an on-going project to construct a waste treatment plant near Appolo Tyres in Kalamaserry Junction.
?We have inspected a few waste treatment plant models that can be installed in Kalamaserry. Once we get administrative sanction from the government, we will start to setup the plant with the help of Kochi Corporation,? said the chairman.

Garbage issue rocks council meeting

2012-02-24T03:37:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

The Corporation council meeting on Thursday witnessed uproarious scenes as the Opposition councillors walked out of the council in protest against delay in finding solution for garbage issue in the city. “The stinking city symbolises the ineptitude of Mayor and his team,” the Opposition alleged. They sought resignation of Mayor I.P. Paul and Standing Committee Chairman (Health) C.S. Srinivasan. The Mayor quipped back: “The LDF, which could not resolve the issue in the last five years had no morale right to criticise the UDF council. The UDF-led council, in its short period of ruling, has made a remarkable progress in solving the issue.”

He thanked Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for allotting Rs. 12 crore for solving the Lalur garbage issue.

“The Chief Minister has approved the project for using the accumulated garbage at Lalur for construction of the Pullazhy-Kannoth bund road. The Corporation will initiate steps to remove the garbage from Lalur dumping yard soon,” he said. He added that decentralisation of garbage treatment was the policy of the Corporation and the civic body would go ahead with the implementation of Lalur Model Project for Solid Waste Management.

Addressing the council, Mr. Srinivasan said the Corporation would urge the District Collector to acquire 1.32 acres of encroached land near Lalur dumping yard.

Meanwhile, PWD officials visited Lalur dumping yard on Thursday. “The Department will submit a project report in one week on construction of the Pullazhy-Kannothe bund road using the Lalur garbage,” said PWD Superintending engineer S. Humayun. The garbage would be used for road construction after removing the plastic waste. The eight-km bund road construction would cost Rs. 20 crore, he said.

Meanwhile, the huger strike of social activist K. Venu completed 10 days on Thursday. The activist, who was shifted to the district hospital by the police on Wednesday, has been continuing his fast in the hospital.

Protest by panel

An all-party monitoring committee meeting in the evening suggested the civic body to find areas within the Corporation limit to treat the city garbage. The committee criticised the decision taken by the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister to use the garbage at Lalur for constructing Pullazhy-Kannothe bund road. “It is improper to dump waste generated by the city in some other panchayat. The corporation should find areas in the city itself for treating its waste,” the meeting suggested.

Court notice to Vilappil panchayat chief, leaders

2012-02-23T03:19:00.000-08:00

Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Vilappil panchayat president Sobhana Kumari and the Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samiti leaders Burhanudeen and Beneckson on a petition filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against them for violating court orders on the solid waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala.

The notice was issued by a Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon.

The court had ordered police protection for resuming the operation of the garbage treatment plant and directed opening of the lock of the gates of the plant with the assistance of police.

Law-and-order issue

The City Corporation alleged that the panchayat president along with agitators had organised protests and blocked the movement of garbage trucks to the plant. They had taken law into their hands and created a law and order situation at the site.

Janakeeya samiti president Burhanudeen and secretary Beneckson had also committed civil contempt and should be punished, the petition said.

Two loads of solid waste were taken to the plant for processing and treatment following the High Court order. When the lorries reached near the site, the panchayat president and the protestors restrained the officials of the Corporation from taking the vehicles into the plant site. The agitators pelted stones at the vehicles and the police. The police had to resort to a mild lathicharge and use tear gas shells to scare away the unruly mob, according to the petition.

The Corporation had not been able to implement the High Court order because of the highhandedness of the panchayat president and the protesters.

The Corporation said that due to the non-cooperation of the police valuable machinery brought from Pune could not be taken to the plant site and ultimately the machine had to be unloaded on the premises of the Corporation. The machinery was brought for the purpose of the construction of the leachate plant. The Corporation alleged that the police had not provided protection for implementing the court order. Effective steps could have been taken for implementing the court order, had the police acted.

The Corporation, therefore, sought a directive to the police to implement the court order.

K. Venu continues fast in hospital

2012-02-23T03:15:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

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K. Venu on hunger strike at the Thrissur District

Hospital Thrissur on Wednesday.—

Photo: K.C. Sowmish

Social activist K. Venu, who has been on an indefinite fast for the last eight days demanding removal of accumulated waste from Lalur garbage dumping yard, was forcefully shifted by the police to Thrissur District Hospital early on Wednesday.

Mr. Venu, however, vowed to continue his hunger strike in the hospital until the City Corporation started removal of garbage from Lalur.

He refused to take medicines and food.

Deteriorating health

A police team led by Assistant Police Commissioner T. K. Thomas shifted Mr. Venu from the venue of the agitation in front of the Corporation to the hospital around 6.20 a.m., claiming that his heath was deteriorating.

“His blood pressure was high. Blood glucose level was 56 mg/Dl. He was suffering from a dip in sodium level and Ketone bodies in urine showed a reading of three plus. We shifted him to the ICU as he badly needed fluids,” said Tony Joseph, the doctor who examined Mr. Venu at the District hospital.

Mayor gharaoed

Condemning the police action, Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy activists gharaoed Mayor I.P. Paul at his chamber.

The police arrested four of the activists - Sreedharan Therambil, Mathew Anthikkad, Divakaran Pallath and Mohammed Kechery. They were later released on bail.

Samara Samithy Chairman T.K. Vasu condemned the police action in the early morning, and said: “The police have not showed democratic decency towards a fasting human rights activist. They didn't conduct any medical examination before shifting him from the venue of the agitation. It is fascist way of suppressing peaceful protests.”

Mass agitation against garbage menace

2012-02-23T03:13:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Voicing their anxiety and protest against the garbage-induced human rights violations, activists across the State conducted a mass agitation in front of the Thrissur Corporation office on Wednesday. Agitators have come from Vilappilsala, Thottippalam, Njelianparambu, Vadavathur, Kureeppuzha, Chakkumkandam and Pettippalam to express solidarity with the residents of Lalur, Thrissur Corporations' garbage dumping site.

Addressing the public meeting, human rights activist C.R. Neelakandan said politicians and bureaucrats with vested interests were scuttling the attempts to find solution for garbage issues through out the State. “The agitation of Lalur residents for their basic right to live a dignified life has the support of the entire country. City Corporation has failed to fulfil its fundamental duties,” he said.

Lack of political will and corruption hindered the waste treatment projects. Troubles at Lalur had become a political issue than a waste management problem, the speakers pointed out.Responding to promises made by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inThiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, Lalur Malineekarana Virudhha Samara Samithy chairman T.K. Vasu said : “It was nothing but an eye wash. The Chief Minister repeated the promises, which he made at the high-level meeting in last November. If he was serious on his promises he would have intervened in the issue much before.”

Mr. Vasu flayed the police action against the fasting social activist K. Venu as a blot on democracy. “Lalur residents were victims of the centralised waste management system. There is a need to create an alternative culture of decentralised waste management with segregation of waste at the source,” he said. For more than two decades, about 400 families have been fighting for their right to hygienic living conditions.

Decision taken

An emergency meeting held by District Collector P.M. Francis on Wednesday night took decision to use accumulated garbage at Lalur dumping yard for the construction of Venkidangu-Kannoth Road. An official declaration on this will be made at an all-party meeting on Thursday.

UDF pushing back Panchayat Raj system in state'

2012-02-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF is pushing back the Panchayat Raj system in the state, opined Dr George Mathew, Chairman of the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. He was delivering the keynote address at a symposium ‘Power to the People; Panchayati Raj Today’ organised by the P Viswambharan Foundation here on Saturday.

Pointing to the trifurcation of the portfolio of the local self-government and rural development, Dr George Mathew said the move derailed the local government system in the state, which was a model for the world. He termed the move as an anti-people step and asked why there was no public protest or mass movement against it. “Congress leader and former Union Minister of Panchayat Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar told me that the trifurcation of the Local Self-Government portfolio in the state was a retrograde step,” he said.
Another major issue he pointed out against the UDF Government was its laxity in accepting the second part of the Fourth Finance Commission report submitted by economist M A Oommen. “The government accepted the first part which was about the devolution package for Local Self-Government institutions. The government is yet to approve the second report submitted in March. The report is about devolution of asset management and fiscal responsibilities to local governments, which would strengthen the local bodies,” he said.
Passing of the Kerala Industrial Single Window Clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act was against the 73rd amendment which calls for repealing Acts . He specifically pointed out the case of Aranmula Airport, where 500 acres of land, including acres of paddy fields, were acquired through the Act. “What role are the local self-governments playing against the move?” he asked. While MPs and MLAs were getting crores as funds, people’s representatives in local bodies were starving for funds, he said.

LSGIs to get a tech boost

2012-02-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

T. Nandakumar

Tool for micro resource management

Development planning in the State is set to receive a technology boost. Local bodies across the State will soon be equipped with a powerful digital tool for micro-level resource management and planning.

The Kerala State Land Use Board has completed the pilot phase of a land resources information system (LRIS) using state-of-the-art technology. The new approach uses GIS (Geographical Information System) tools and remote- sensing imagery to create digital map of each district. The Web-based GIS project will demonstrate and promote the use of spatial data technologies for local-level planning.

At a function held here on Wednesday, T.M. Thomas Isaac, MLA, released the LRIS for three districts —Wayanad, Palakkad, and Ernakulam.

The geospatial information developed under the LRIS project includes a detailed inventory of land use, landforms, geological structures, soil and water resources, ground water potential, watershed, forest boundaries, road and rail network, wastelands and wetlands, settlement locations, and boundaries of local bodies.

Prepared with technical assistance provided by the Indian Institute of Information Technology Management, Kerala (IIITM-K), the project involves the integration of the existing panchayat-level cadastral resource maps with high-resolution satellite imagery and existing field-level thematic resource data to create a multi-layered grassroots- level digital information system.

“LRIS addresses the need for reliable, accurate, geospatial information for the conservation, sustainable development, and management of natural resources. It will also provide a common platform and a mechanism for sharing data,” says S. Edison, Joint Director, Land Use Board. “The deployment of the system will help administrators, planners, and local self-government institutions in decentralised planning through an inclusive, coordinated approach,” he adds.

Developed using Open Source tools and standards, the Web-based GIS application will facilitate concurrent access for multiple users and timely revision of data for effective decision-making and developmental planning.

Waste treatment in Thrikkakara raises a stink

2012-02-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

K. A. Martin

Garbage management in Thrikkakara municipality is raising a stink with residents' associations accusing the municipal authority of doing little to contain a problem that has resulted in rising heaps of garbage even along thoroughfares.

From the road right in front of the famed Thrikkakara temple to Kudilimukku and Vazhakkala; Chembumukku and Kollamkudimugal, it is hard to pass even 100 metres without confronting heaps of plastic bottles, leftovers from kitchens, waste from meat shops, plastic carry-bags, decaying home furniture and abandoned car upholsteries.

Chairman of the Municipality P. I. Mohammedali said that the municipality had sought to use the now-defunct Brahmapuram facility for disposing of the waste from Thrikkakara area. The Corporation of Kochi has said that the plant would be functional in three months after which the municipality can use the facility, said Mr. Mohammedali.

He is optimistic that the company entrusted with its operation will also collect the garbage as promised by the Corporation. Otherwise, he said, he was helpless. “We will have no other way but to dump the waste at the Brahmapuram plant after the three-month period whether the improvements happens or not.”

Meanwhile, residents' associations in Thrikkakara are skeptical about a new scheme to provide 4,000 vermi compost pots at subsidised rates to households.

It is impossible to overcome the menace of improperly handled garbage without creating awareness among the people, says Salim Kunnumpuram of Thrikkakara Residents' Associations' Confederation.

He alleged that administration was only bothered about holding functions to mark the inauguration of new schemes while nothing was happening on the ground.

Former president of Thrikkakara panchayat M. E. Hassainar alleged that this was the worst administration Thrikkakara had seen since its inception as a local administrative body. He accused the current council of doing little and being hampered by feud within the ruling coalition.

Lack of workers to attend to the problem is another reason for the Municipality's failure so far in attending to garbage disposal effectively. It has only five workers and a vehicle for collection and Kudumbashree members make good the deficiency to a measure.

It is impossible to cover the entire municipal area with so few workers, admits the Municipal authority. While Kudumbashree workers make door-to-door collection of segregated waste, municipal resources are largely being used for clearing waste dumped along waysides.

Twenty-five sanitation workers sanctioned for the municipality are expected to join duty only by April. Even if this additional work force helps collect more waste, it would be more of a problem than a solution unless the municipality found a sustainable waste disposal facility.

All-party panel to monitor waste management

2012-02-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Immediate challenge is to shift the accumulated garbage from the Lalur dumping yard: Mayor

Thrissur: An all-party meeting held here on Wednesday formed a monitoring committee to assist the Thrissur Corporation in tackling the waste management issue in the city.

The committee, with members from various political parties, will help the civic body in reaching a political consensus on issues including identification of suitable location for shifting the accumulated garbage in Lalur dumping yard.

Mayor I.P. Paul called the all-party meeting as the Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy's hunger strike completed two days on Wednesday.

The on-going agitation of Lalur residents has had a catastrophic effect on city life. Garbage disposal from the city has been affected for the past 23 days as Samara Samithy activists blocked vehicles transporting garbage to the dumping yard following a week-long fire at the trenching ground.

Addressing the meeting, the Mayor said decentralisation of garbage treatment was the policy of the corporation.

“The problem in identifying suitable locations for decentralised plants is scuttling the corporation's effort to find a solution to the garbage issue.”

The immediate challenge before the corporation was to shift the accumulated garbage from the Lalur dumping yard, the Mayor said.

A high-level meting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in November last had also directed the corporation to remove it as early as possible.

Though the civic body identified an abandoned quarry at Thonippara, near Ramavarmapuram, for dumping the waste, the local resident had raised objection against the move.

“Finding a solution is impossible without political consensus,” Mr. Paul said.

Therambil Ramakrishnan, MLA, said that the city corporation should be able to take the residents of Thonippara into confidence before dumping the waste in the area.

CPI(M) State committee member Baby John alleged that there was a mafia involved in the whole process of waste management.

He called for forming a public forum with social, political and religious institutions with a ‘Clean Thrissur' mission.

Former Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran asked the civic body about the progress of the Lalur Model Project for Solid Waste Management, which was approved by the previous LDF Government.

He also suggested conducting an environmental assessment study before dumping the accumulated garbage in any area.

BJP district president B. Gopalakrishnan insisted that the corporation should distribute bio-gas plants to households free of cost.

CPI district secretary C.N. Jayadevan sought a local-level political consensus for setting up decentralised treatment plants.

C.S. Sreenivasan, Corporation Standing Committee (Health) Chairman said the corporation had already taken measures to reduce garbage dumped at Lalur.

“The 70-odd hotels have been asked to set up their own waste treatment system. Notices have been issued to 19 marriage halls too,” he said.

The monitoring panel will meet on Thursday to identify locations for shifting the garbage from Lalur.

Meanwhile, the Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy has rejected the corporation's request to withdraw the hunger strike.

Samara Samithy leader T.K. Vasu said it would continue the agitation until the garbage has been removed from Lalur.

Waste to be collected from houses in Kottayam

2012-02-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

120 persons being trained to collect garbage

Kottayam: UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT:The segregated garbage dumping point at Nagambadom in Kottayam.

With the much published municipal waste collection through designated dumping points in the municipal area meeting with little success, Kottayam municipality is all set to withdraw the initiative and instead, experiment with door-to-door collection.

According to V. K. Anil Kumar, chairman, Municipal Standing Committee on Health, the new experiment would start on February 25. Initially, the door-to-door collection would be introduced only in Ward 18 (Kanjikuzhy).. Once found successful, this would be extended to Mullankuzhy, Mount Carmel, Devalokam and Muttambalam areas, he said.

Already 120 persons, many of them from Kudumbasree Mission, have applied for the collection. They would be given a one-day training on February 22 , before deputing them for the collection. Door-to-door collection would help to segregate the waste at the source before brining it to the dumping yard, Mr. Anilkumar said.

It was only few weeks back that the Municipal authorities identified 17 dumping points in the town and provided the spots with two garbage bins each, one for the perishable and other, for the non-perishable.

However, the initiative met with a major hurdle as people, even from outside the town dumped the waste without segregating it.

The move is to remove the bins in a phased manner, Mr. Anilkumar said.

Tension at Kureepuzha; hartal in city today

2012-02-15T21:39:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

LOUD AND CLEAR:Residents protesting against

the garbage treatment plant of the Kollam

Corporation in Kureepuzha on Wednesday.

Photo: C. Suresh Kumar

Residents block construction of leachate treatment unit

Kollam: Tension erupted at Kureepuzha on Wednesday when residents of the area blocked the construction of a leachate unit attached to the garbage treatment plant of the Kollam Corporation. The police intervened and used force to arrest and remove the residents.

In the melee, eight persons, including six children, were injured. They were hospitalised. Forty three persons, including 24 women, were arrested. The police said the arrested would be produced before court on Thursday.

Protesting against the police action, the Sangh Parivar organisations and the BJP have called for a dawn to dusk hartal in Kollam city on Thursday. Those on agitation have the political support of the BJP.

The residents demanded that the garbage treatment plant should be shifted from Kureepuzha. Trouble began by 8 a.m. when the residents, including women and children, entered the trench dug up for erecting the leachate unit. When the police intervened to arrest the demonstrators, the women whipped out kerosene cans and threatened to commit suicide if they were arrested.

The police then withdrew. By 10.30 a.m., the police announced over the megaphone that the demonstrators had trespassed into government property and if they failed to disperse they would be arrested. But the demonstrators did not budge. Then suddenly, two women doused themselves with kerosene and it led to a tense situation.

Though the police came forward to rush a woman who swooned to hospital, the demonstrators blocked the police. By 3 p.m. the police arrested the demonstrators.

City stinking as garbage removal system fails

2012-02-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

Anand Haridas and

Dumped in the open:Heaps of garbage like the one

in the picture are frequent sights in the city.A scene

from near NGO Quarters, Kakkanad,on Wednesday

Photo: By special arrangement

Residents resort to dumping of waste in open spaces

Sustainable disposal of residential and municipal waste appears a distant dream for the district. Residents of the city and neighbouring municipalities are at a loss as to what may be done with heaps of garbage springing up even along thoroughfares despite a drive against it by the authorities.

The City Police, as instructed by the Kerala High Court, recently launched a drive to check dumping of waste in public places. The practice was effectively stopped during the initial days. But it has now returned. “We have pointed out sacks of garbage dumped by the roadside to the police patrol teams. Even they are helpless as the dumping happens immediately after the patrol party leaves,” said a resident of Fort Kochi.

A housewife in Fort Kochi said that she was yet to have anyone knocking at her door to pick up the segregated waste. So she resorts to what other also do, throw the garbage in open spaces. “The situation is dismal. While garbage is dumped in the open, plastic waste is clogging main water outlets like Mantra Canal,” said P.M. Xavier, secretary of the West Kochi region of the Ernakulam District Residents' Associations' Apex Council (EDRAAC).

The situation is not very different in Maradu. A resident of the area complained that it was often very hard to remain in the house as plastic waste in the neighbourhood was burnt in the open space near their house.

“We had written many times asking for decentralised plants at division levels. But nothing has happened so far. May be because of the big money involved in the transportation of garbage to the centralised plant,” said S. Balakrishnan, president of Residents' Apex Council Ernakulam (RACE) and a resident of Maradu.

Those in Tripunithura were waiting for the meeting convened by the municipality on Saturday to get a clear idea about subsidies given for individual waste treatment efforts. “As of now, garbage is being collected and removed from houses, but no disposal is happening. It is learnt that the garbage is being dumped at the land owned by Government College, Tripunithura, at Mekkara,” said V.P. Prasad, chairman of Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents' Associations.

Heard last was the promise the corporation has given to EDRAAC representatives about a modern solid waste treatment system. “We have been demanding smaller, decentralised units. But the corporation, we are told, are planning to have a new plant. It has been noticed that dumping of garbage in the open has returned,” said A. Ajith Kumar, general secretary, EDRAAC.

On their part, the City Police are planning to revive the drive. That seems to be the best the authorities can think of, at least for now.

High-rise buildings, metro not a panacea for Kochi: Correa

2012-02-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

S. Anandan

Eminent architect and urban designer Charles Correa takes exception to the line of thinking that advocates high-rise structures and metro rail as the panacea for a third world city that is bursting at its seams.

An admirer of Kerala and its traditional architecture, Mr. Correa says the State and Kochi city would do well to reclaim low rise high density housing, water transport along the State's verdant waterways and create walkers' streets and bus rapid transit systems. “Those are the images of modernity. In olden times, our cities were pedestrian-friendly,” the master architect toldThe Hinduin an exclusive interview at Fort Kochi on Sunday.

Quoting Jaime Lerner, the architect-turned-Mayor and Governor of Brazil's iconic Curitiba city, Mr. Correa says the cities of the third world are at a crunch today, but unfortunately there are people going around selling two kinds of images and technology to them: high-rise buildings and metro rail. “Both are unaffordable but irresistible because the Mayor is a kind of person who thinks, ‘I need it to show that I'm modern'. Ideally, bus-only roads and pedestrian streets should be the images of modernity,” he says. Jaime's three-wagon trailer buses capable of shipping 240 passengers and their ramp-like station platforms have been an eye-opener to many cities, Mr. Correa says. All South American cities are on a grid, as they were designed by the Spanish.

“They had something called the law of the indies. The main square was to be empty and around it were the most important and sacred buildings. It was like amandala,” Mr. Correa connects it to the Indian context to demonstrate the significance of open public spaces in urban design.

While underground metro costs ten times that of the bus system, an overhead metro would be plain ugly like a ‘big concrete skull'. Commuting by buses costs only one-sixtieth the cost of metro per passenger per mile, as demonstrated by Jaime Lerner and the model is now being replicated in many cities the world over.

Besides laying dedicated bus roads, Kochi should also ‘pedestrianise' its principal streets, a la London's Oxford Street, letting only public transport and taxies ply along those routes, with private-vehicle parking allowed on the cross-streets. “This will decongest the city,” he says.

Asked about the proposed skycity project to have a flyover along the Chilavannur backwaters, Mr. Correa laughs off the idea as ‘foolish' as ‘it is not going to solve the city's traffic problem'. Revive water transport, he suggests instead, saying it would be cool and romantic to have it.

When you add people in a crowded area, you are not counting the number of schools, hospitals and open spaces that those people will need, he says. The per capita open space shrinks drastically as the height of an apartment complex grows, terribly skewing the balance as it ‘aggressively' goes beyond five or six storeys.

If you cannot even provide at least a five-metre open space per person, you are condemning people to an underprivileged life, however rich or poor they are, he says.

Further, those who occupy the top storeys of skyscrapers feel a disconnect with the ground below. Citing Jane Jacobs, author of ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities', Mr. Correa says such feeling of deprivation triggers an escalation in hostility and crimes.

Save the cities

The British had realised long ago that open space was the real luxury to have.

“Our villages are full of iniquities and the only thing we have is our cities. And if they fail us, we are through,” he cautions.

Kerala needs stronger Gram Sabhas not more Airports bypassing them

2012-02-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

New Delhi, February 9 : Kerala, a state with a coast length of 590 Kms and width between 11 to 121 Kms, which already has three international airports (Thiruvananthpuram, Kozhikode, Cochin) and plans to build two more at Kanoor and Aranmula points towards something extremely wrong with the development planning. All doesn’t seem well within the State, known for its participatory development planning model as being touted through various studies.

The Chennai-based KGS Group, promoter of the proposed KGS International Greenfield Airport at Aranmula got the clearance after Kerala Industries department declared 500 acres of land spread across the Mallappuzhasserry, Aranmula and Kidangannur villages as industrial area. The clearance was granted invoking the provisions in the Kerala Industrial Single Window Clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act 1999. The Act passed in 1999, usurps the powers of the local self-government institutions and is aimed at bypassing the otherwise mandatory clearances required for various projects from the panchayats, municipalities, Town Planning Department and Development Authorities in the land notified as industrial area. As per section -18 of the Act, those places notified as industrial area would not only remain outside the purview of the master plan or zonal plan but also remain excluded from any legislation passed by the State Assembly. This is completely unacceptable.

The Coca Cola factory at Plachimada had managed to get clearance by utilising the single window clearance system of the same Act. It is unfortunate that the government has failed to take any lesson from the decade long struggle of the Plachimada Coca-Cola Virudha Samara Samithi against the Coca Cola factory. Even though the Kerala Assembly passed with consensus the ‘Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011, it has had no impact on the development planning and need for establishing the rights of the Gram Sabha.

The proposed airport on the model of ‘Aerotropolis’ is completely unnecessary since Kerala already has enough Airports. Records available with the State Planning Board show that Kerala lost over 5,00,000 hectares of paddy fields between 1980 and 2007 but has failed to add more land under cultivation.

NAPM demands that Government should take a strong resolve not to permit any more conversion of paddy field or wetland in the larger interests of ensuring the very existence of the land of Kerala. The wanton conversion of wetlands and paddy fields taking place in the name of ‘development’ at Aranmula for the ‘Private Aranmula Greenfield International Airport’ should be brought to a halt and Government should take over all illegally converted land for agriculture purposes and cancel the project immediately.

NAPM stands with the people of Aranmula and supports the struggle against proposed Airport. We also urge that the laws like Kerala Industrial Single Window Clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act 1999 be repealed since they usurp the constitutionally granted rights of Gram Sabha. Gram Sabhas have the sole right to plan development in their area as per the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Constitution and Kerala government must respect it.

Vilappilsala: CDS had foreseen it years ago

2012-02-15T04:58:00.000-08:00

by shainu mohan

While almost all municipal corporations across the state are grappling with problems of treating and putting away garbage, including disposal of solid waste, the situation has reached alarming proportions in some cities and towns. This, experts say, is largely due to the changing housing pattern that has facilitated more flats and apartments, and in effect generation of more waste. Garbage hot spots in the state — such as Vilappilsala (in Thiruvananthapuram) Brahmapuram (Kochi), Chelora (Kannur), Laloor (Thrissur) and Njeliyamparamba (Kozhikode) — have now become household names, and for all the wrong reasons. Reason: local residents have led a continuous agitation in these areas against dumping of urban waste in their localities. A study conducted back in 2005 by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) on ‘Municipal Solid Waste Management in Cities — Issues of Basic Rights of People of Surrounding a Village and Alternatives’ – had stressed the need for segregation and reduction of waste at source. The report was prepared after a weeklong field study at Vilappilsala Panchayat, where the controversial solid waste treatment plant of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is located. It found the plant was causing serious environmental and health problems among the locals. The study reflected on issues such as water contamination, health issues, and problem of insect vectors that the locals face as a result. More than half-a-decade on, the suggestions still remain on paper. According to experts, the situation would not have become so alarming, and locals not so fervently opposed to the waste treatment plant, had the authorities taken corrective measures at the time. Vilappilsala villagers’ poser to city snobs It is indeed gratifying to see what a small team of researchers (this writer was a member), who went to most households in Vilappilsala in 2002, felt has now become almost a consensual opinion. Not many cared when we said the garbage treatment plant there is the worst thing that could have happened to the place. We are indeed grateful to the Centre for Development Studies, and especially Prof John Kurien, for supporting and encouraging us to take up that study. In fact, what has surprised many today seems to us a very natural thing. But this raises a few pertinent points. The question raised by corporation officials is, where else can they dump the waste if not in Vilappilsala? This question, however, should not even come up in a democracy. Waste generation is the result of a rather profligate lifestyle, which abhors correction. As citizens of a purportedly thinking society, we bother about ozone holes and developed countries dumping waste, even as we tie vegetable and kitchen waste in plastic bags and throw it on the people of Vilappilsala. But when people rise in protest, can we also not see it as a local variant of struggle against greed, which gained momentum in the West and is being lauded by many here? Why should we belittle the protest by residents of Vilappilsala, as some have done? Are we hypothesising that people with lesser means, who cannot buy luxury flats in the city, are destined to live in boundaries of waste mounds? When city residents reap benefits of their land value appreciating, Vilappilsala residents see their land becoming worthless due to garbage disposal there. Lastly, after having got the fame of pioneering the Kerala model of development and decentralisation, are we headed for the ignominy of introducing the imperial mode of solid waste management, in which richer local agencies will dump their waste on poorer ones? (Author is a researcher in issues of federal polity) CDS study on Vilappilsala plant Water contamination: Dumping waste at factory site was polluting groundwater at lower elevation. Water sample from some wells tested found it polluted, and thus not potable. Spot inquiry conducted by State Pollution Control Board also found contaminated water from factory was polluting water sources in nearby areas. Health issues: Stink from garbage dumped in outer circle of the plant caused health problems, especially respiratory ailments. Primary health centre records showed a marked increase in acute respiratory illness. Problem of insect vectors: Though disinfectants used in the factory made it clean inside, flies and insects outside posed as health hazard for local populace. Besides stench of the garbage, rise in mosquitoes and vector-borne created a scare among the people.

Source URL: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/thiruvananthapuram/vilappilsala-cds-had-foreseen-it-years-ago-255

Indefinite fast begins at Lalur

2012-02-14T21:19:00.000-08:00

Special Correspondent

Vocal protest:Social activist K. Venu

(extreme right) on fast in front of the

Thrissur Corporation office on

Tuesday.— Photo: K.C. Sowmish

Writer calls for implementing waste management technology

Social activist K. Venu on Tuesday started an indefinite fast demanding a solution to the waste management problems at Lalur, the corporation's garbage disposal site.

“This is a fast unto death. I will stop only when authorities start removing garbage piled up at Lalur,” he said.

Inaugurating the fast, writer Zachariah said the people responsible for creating the problems should be identified.

“Identify the real enemies of the people. There is no mysterious force behind the problem. We all know who the culprits are. Stop blaming it on globalisation and neo-colonialism. Point the finger at those who live on tax-payers' money and do nothing for the people,” he said.

He said that people should resist not only lorries transporting garbage, but also some political parties who make use of the situation. “Resist everyone who dumps garbage secretly. We do have the technology for waste management. But not the will to implement it.”

Writer Parvathy Pavanan, activist M.R. Govindan and Lalur Malineekarana Virudha Samara Samithi chairman T.K. Vasu were present.

The samithi launched the fast accusing the corporation of having failed to carry out decisions taken at a high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy last November. The Chief Minister had reportedly directed the corporation to remove the garbage that had piled up at Lalur before January .

Mandatory grama sabha meetings to be 3 a year

2012-02-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Rural tour:Minister for Panchayats M.K. Muneer inaugurating a special grama sabha as part of his Grama Yatra at Pookkottur in Malappuramon Tuesday.

Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare M.K. Muneer has said that the number of grama sabha meetings required to be convened in grama panchayat wards will be reduced to three a year.

Dr. Muneer was inaugurating a special grama sabha held at Ward 12 of Pookkottur grama panchayat near here as part of his Grama Yatra programme on Tuesday.

The Minister said the State would soon have a new geriatric policy. Old-age-friendly policies will be formulated to cater for senior citizens, who comprise 11 per cent of the State's population, he said. The Minister chose Pookkottur grama panchayat as the first old-age-friendly panchayat in the State. Special boards will be formed to implement special programmes for the aged, he said. He said any development incompatible to the tradition and heritage of a place should not be adopted. Model anganwadis will be constructed in all Assembly constituencies at a cost of Rs.19 lakh. The anganwadis will have facilities for studies and combating diseases. Ward member Sumayya handed over the ward's development document to the Minister. Dr. Muneer felicitated several former panchayat members at the meeting. P. Ubaidulla, MLA, presided. Mohammed Unni Haji, MLA; District Collector M.C. Mohandas; district panchayat president Zuhara Mampad; district panchayat vice-president P.K. Kunhu; Malappuram block panchayat president T.T. Koyamu; and Pookkottur grama panchayat vice-president P. Mariyumma spoke. Panchayat president P.A. Salam welcomed the gathering. Panchayat member Sumaiyya proposed a vote of thanks.

The Grama Yatra was given a warm reception in the district. Several people's representatives took part in a rally that led the Minister to the special grama sabha.

Inaugurating another special grama sabha at Ward 15 of Pulikkal grama panchayat later, Dr. Muneer called upon the people to come forward and attend grama sabhas to become part of the country's development process.

Online Plan monitoring system defunct

2012-02-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

N.J. Nair

The functioning of an online Plan monitoring system set up for periodic review of the execution and fund absorption rate of Plan projects across the State has been derailed, allegedly due to bureaucratic apathy.

The monitoring system, Plan Space, which went on stream during the tenure of the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, was deemed an effective solution to garnering data and reviewing expenditure under various heads at any given point of time. The online mode was expected to address the hiccups in data collection in the conventional mode as done at present by the Central Plan Monitoring Unit.

Official sources toldThe Hinduhere that the system was designed in such a manner as to find out whether the schemes mentioned in the budget had secured the mandatory clearances such as administrative and technical sanction and had taken off at the prescribed time. Quite often, the thrust of the official reviews are on the utilisation of funds allocated for various projects and do not give due importance to the physical targets to be achieved. Plan Space had provisions for comprehensive review of the financial and physical results.

The system, protected by password, can be accessed at the level of Ministers, secretaries and other officials as per their requirement. For, the aggregate figures, project-specific details at the micro and macro level were all provided in an extensive manner. It had a treasury interface to monitor the flow of funds at that level too. Once the execution system was made transparent and the entire system of execution and fund utilisation placed in the public domain, it became imperative for the officials and elected members of local self-government institutions to achieve the targets and step up their performance.

In order to ensure that it was not just a fault-finding mission, implementing officers were given an exclusive page to explain the causes for the delay or impediments in executing a work to satisfaction. For, the task of feeding the data was vested on them and hence they were given a chance to offer an explanation for the shortcomings. Once the system became successful, it was proposed to open it for the public too.

The system won the acclaim of the Secretaries and the Cabinet and was launched with great fanfare. But very soon it got mired in bureaucratic indifference and gradually became defunct. Though steps have been taken to revive the system for improving the Plan monitoring process, no serious effort has been made so far to activate it in full swing, sources said.

Sinking litter by litter, Kerala struggles for relief

2012-02-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

Search the Internet for an answer to the question “Which is the cleanest State in India?” and it is very likely that “Kerala” will pop up in one out of three answers. But anyone who takes a closer look at the urban neighbourhoods of Kerala will tend to disagree. The once green and clean State is fast becoming a fit locale for a public health disaster with garbage mounds dotting every street corner and Kerala's famed political landscape becoming a space of fierce contestation between urban and village local bodies and their people over garbage disposal.

Kerala is estimated to be churning out in excess of 8,000 tonnes of garbage every day, of which 10 per cent is plastic waste, and every town and city is now struggling to manage the solid waste that keep piling up with few options available to dispose them.

The acrimonious stand-off between the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation and the Vilappil panchayat in the suburbs, where a 300-tonne solid-waste treatment plant has been existence for over a decade, has caught national attention over the past few months. But Vilappilsala is but one of the dozens of places where similar upheavals are on.

As one travels from north to south, it is as though the whole landscape of Kerala is dotted with garbage hotspots. Kelugudde, Seethangoli, and Kollangana in Kasaragod; Pettippalam and Chelora in Kannur; Njeliyanparamba in Kozhikode; Pirivushala in Palakkad; Lalur in Thrissur; Chakkukandam in Guruvayur; Brahmapuram in Ernakulam; Vadavathur in Kottayam; Fathimapuram, near Changanassery; Kannaattupaara; near Pala; Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta; Kureepuzha in Kollam; and Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram are but a few of these hotspots where local resistance movements have sprung up against indiscriminate dumping of solid waste, including plastic and e-waste, the product of Kerala's relentless march towards urbanisation.

The waste accumulated on roadsides and street corners are a ticking time bomb of doom, which, if not defused in time, can wreak havoc on a scale similar to, or worse than, the plague that broke out in Surat in Gujarat in 1994, that accounted for 52 lives and forced the migration of 1.5 million people from the “diamond city.”

Although the State has been hearing such alluring slogans as “Clean Kerala, Green Kerala” and “Garbage-free Kerala,” those in charge of clearing waste in various civic bodies are today groping in the dark to find ways (and places) to dispose of the massive amount of waste being generated every day. Worse, the State still lacks a policy on waste management. Nor does it have a model to follow.

The State's idea of waste management all these years has had to do with identification of a spot some distance away from urban centres and dumping of all the garbage there.

All these places have now become flashpoints of struggle by people in their neighbourhood who are no longer ready to bear the burden of waste generated by urban agglomerations.

What is common about all these struggles is that they represent a new form of political organisation and articulation over an issue of immediate concern to the local populace. In many of these places, the mainstream political parties, which are stakeholders in the governance structures of either the perpetrator local government or the victim local body, are either out of the struggle or are forced to take positions that are quite unpalatable to them.

The questions that those who live in the immediate vicinity of dump yards raise are simple: Asks Sulochana, living at Chakkumkandam, near Guruvayur, “Why should we bear the burden of the waste generated by the city? Why should we live in filth for the convenience of the city dwellers? Are we not entitled to basic human rights? How can you deny us the right to fresh air and pure water?”

No easy answers

That there are no easy answers to these questions became evident when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy recently said that the main problem was that the State did not have a successful model for waste management.

“The government is studying a few models elsewhere. It may zero in on one of them,” he had said. Pathiyur Gopinath, Professor at the Instructional Farm, Kerala Agricultural University, who was the brain behind the Lalur Model Project for Solid-Waste Management in Thrissur, says: “Composting, gasification, incineration, and landfill are the only available processes for waste treatment anywhere in the world. What is important is the methodology, which should be adapted to our edapho-climatic factors, such as soil, topography, and climatic conditions. The successful models elsewhere need not be suitable for our conditions.”

The entire problem lies in the approach towards waste management, says T.K. Vasu, activist of the Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithi (Anti-Pollution Struggle Committee) at Lalur, the Thrissur Corporation's garbage dumping site. “The authorities still consider centralised waste management the only option. In a densely populated State such as Kerala, where availability of land is a huge problem, we cannot afford to earmark vast tracts of land for dump yards,” he says. At Lalur, nearly 400 families reside in half-a-dozen housing colonies, situated within a 150-metre radius around the dump yard.

In 2009, filthy water oozed out of the garbage heap at the Lalur dump yard and flooded houses and contaminated wells in the neighbourhood. The compound wall of the trenching ground collapsed in the monsoon and the rotten garbage spread in the entire area forcing the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to seal off 54 wells in Lalur.

Similar situation

The situation is similar in other cities such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam, and Kozhikode. Stench from the Vilappilsala plant had triggered public protests, forcing the authorities to halt dumping of waste on the site recently.

Residents living near the Brahmapuram plant in Ernakulam district are on the warpath against a Kerala High Court directive allowing the centralised plant there to treat the waste generated in the Corporation area and nearby municipalities. They allege that the dumped waste pollutes water sources, including groundwater and the Kadambrayar, a major drinking water source for many panchayats and municipalities in Ernakulam district.

Horror

The people of Chakkumkandam have been living the horror of water contamination for long now. Here, people are forced to drink water from the wells into which human waste flow from the temple town. Raw sewage and other waste from lodges, restaurants, and wedding halls are discharged into Valiathode, which once used to be a storm-water drainage canal, ending up in the Chakkumkandam Kayal.

C.F. George, an activist of the Chakkumkandam Azhukkuchal Virudda Samithi, says: “Many of the 200-odd lodges and as many restaurants have no septic tank and they route their waste into Valiathode from where tonnes of raw sewage is pumped into the Chakkumkandam Kayal, the lifeline of 3,000-odd families in five panchayats surrounding the backwaters.”

The pervasive presence of coliform bacteria in drinking water across the State is an accepted fact now. A recent study conducted by the Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, had shown that 99 per cent of the tap-water samples collected from 14 districts in the State are contaminated with coliform bacteria. Rivers and open wells too have an alarming presence of faecal matter. A test conducted by the Environmental Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, should be an eye-opener for the 3.5 lakh devotes who throng the Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple every year. The study had found that the coliform bacteria count in “Theerthakulam,” the Gurvayur temple tank, was 1,100 in every 100 ml of water. “Manikkinar,” from which water is drawn for use in temple rituals, is just 50 metres from “Theertdhakulam.”

Population growth

The steadily increasing population of the State has a direct bearing on the amount of waste generated. Estimates show that a person generates two kg of waste a day. The solution to the massive problem lies in decentralisation of waste treatment. Composting and gasification are the most eco-friendly treatment methods. There are those who believe that about 60 per cent of the household waste can be treated through various kinds of composting methods, such as aerobic composting, vermi-composting, and window composting, and that the rest of the waste can be incinerated. Although landfill has been suggested as a possible method, it has already met with stiff resistance in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam where abandoned quarries are sought to be made landfills. “We need an integrated approach of waste management involving composting, gasification and incineration. Small regional biogas plants, which can treat the daily waste of a region, should be popularised,” Prof. Gopinath says.

Biogas

But there are those who doubt the efficacy of these methods and also their impact on reduction of garbage. They ask why biogas plants, popularised by agencies and organisations such as the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) for the past two-three decades, have failed to work here. “Lack of proper training to run them and poor maintenance,” says M.P. Parameswaran, social activist and one of the founders of KSSP.

“The Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC), Palakkad, had developed successful biogas plants, which have been functioning efficiently. The problem comes when non-segregated waste is stuffed into the plant in excess amounts,” he says. Total ban on plastic and segregation of waste at source hold the key to success for eco-friendly waste management, Mr. Parameswaran says. “Why can't we carry a cloth bag while going for shopping? It will reduce the plastic pollution considerably.”

It is not just domestic waste that poses a major challenge. According to Environmental Information System, managed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, hospitals in the State have 1.1 lakh beds and each bed generates about 300 grams of biomedical waste a day and there is as yet no system in place for proper disposal of the biomedical waste. Perhaps far more serious is the rapidly emerging stream of electronic waste, including discarded computers, office electronic equipment, entertainment devices, mobile phones and television sets. The threats posed by them have not received the attention they deserve as the State is not yet done with the voluminous domestic waste.

Authorities at the local and State levels cite absence of appropriate technology as the reason for the problem assuming such explosive dimensions, but the failure of planners and administrators to foresee the emerging threat and the way they wasted time all these years are equally important reasons why the situation has reached a point where even seemingly rational solutions have become unacceptable to the people. It might perhaps need the outbreak of a major pandemic for a sense of urgency to set in. But, clearly, as poet James Russel Lowell said, “Time is ripe, rotten ripe, for change” in Kerala. For, a disaster is knocking on the State's doors.

Indefinite fast at Lalur from today

2012-02-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Garbage dumped on the roadside in Thrissur

PHOTO: K.C. Sowmish

Tonnes of garbage piling up on roads in Thrissur

Amid failed attempts to pacify the agitating residents of Lalur, the corporation's garbage dumping site, social activist K. Venu will begin an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Corporation office on Tuesday.

Writer Zachariah will inaugurate the public meeting, which will be attended by writers, social activists and political leaders, according to the Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithi.

The Samara Samithi had announced the indefinite fast as the corporation failed to implement the decisions taken at the high-level meeting convened by Chief Minster Oommen Chandy in November, 2011.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister had asked the city corporation to remove all accumulated garbage from Lalur before January. He also directed the civic body to set up two decentralised waste management plants at Panankuttichira and Kerala Agricultural University campus.

The samithi alleged that the corporation had not taken any steps so far to solve the programme. The recent fire at Lalur dump yard made the conditions worse.

In his statement, Mr. Venu said the Lalur residents had been fighting for their right to live in a hygienic and healthy ambience for quarter of a century.

Their cries for a solution had fallen on deaf years.

“Crores of rupees have gone down the drain over the years in the name of waste management. But the authorities failed to find a lasting solution,” he said.

The Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithi leader T.K. Vasu said the agitation would continue until the accumulated garbage was removed from Lalur.

Moving through city roads has largely become a disgusting experience these days as the city has been without a sanitation system for over three weeks now.

Garbage disposal from the Thrissur Corporation areas remained halted for the last three weeks owing to protest from the residents of Lalur. Be it Sakthan Nagar, in the heart of the city, or areas like Patturaikkal, Poonkunnam, Shoranur Road, East Fort or West Fort, garbage heaps can be found right on the roads.

Following the prolonged agitation tonnes of garbage have piled up in every street and corner of the city. An estimated 160 tonnes of waste is being generated in the corporation limits every day.

Meanwhile, the corporation has called an all-party meeting on Wednesday to reach a political consensus on the issue.

Mayor I.P Paul said the corporation was trying its best to find a solution to the problem.

“We understand the problem of Lalur residents. We are trying to get a place to shift the accumulated waste from Lalur. But availability of space is a huge problem in corporation limit,” he said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2891342.ece

Agitation at Vilappilsala, support from Moolampilly

2012-02-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

Special Correspondent

The Moolampilly Coordination Committee has hailed the ongoing ‘democratic, non-partisan, secular' agitation launched by the residents of Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram district.

In a statement, the committee said the agitation against dumping of urban garbage at Vilappilsala would have the full support of the people of Moolampilly who had been evicted for laying a road to the Vallarpadam transhipment project.

The coordination committee praised the Vilappilsala agitators for recognising that the mainstream political parties had duped them and for launching an agitation of their own cutting across religious, political, and class differences. It wanted the government to adopt a positive approach to the agitation.

In Thrissur

Staff Reporter writes from Thrissur: Moving through city roads has largely become a disgusting experience these days as the city is sans a sanitation system for over three weeks now.

Be it Sakthan Nagar, in the heart of the city, or areas such as Patturaikkal, Poonkunnam, Shoranur Road, East Fort or West Fort, garbage heaps can be found right on the roads.

Garbage disposal from the Thrissur Corporation areas had remained halted for the last three weeks owing to protest from the residents of Lalur, Thrissur Corporation's garbage dumping site.

Following the prolonged agitation, tonnes of garbage have piled up in every street and corner of the city. An estimated 160 tonnes of waste is being generated in the corporation limits every day.

“We have to cover our nose with handkerchief due to stench from garbage heaps while going to school,” says P. Rachana, student of Vivekodhayam Girls High School.

Meanwhile, the Corporation called an all-party meeting on Wednesday to reach a political consensus on the issue. Mayor I.P Paul said the Corporation was trying its best to find a solution for the problem. “We understand the problem of Lalur residents. We are trying to get a place to shift the accumulated waste from Lalur. But availability of space is a huge problem in the corporation limit,” he said.

Same in Kottayam

Staff Reporter writes from Kottayam: The Pala LDF municipal mandalam committee, which has been spearheading an agitation against the municipal waste dumping ground at Kanattupara for the past 41 days has decided to intensify the agitation.

Benny Myladdor, NCP member of the Pala Municipality, said the LDF would form a human chain from the municipal office to the residence of Kerala Congress (M) leader K.M. Mani on Tuesday evening in protest against what he termed the ‘apathy' of the KC(M) leadership on the issue.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2891088.ece

Panchayats say ‘no' to waste plant

2012-02-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

G. Krishnakumar

Encouraged by the growing people's movements against the dumping of solid waste in public places, the Vadavucode-Puthencruz and Kunnathunadu panchayats here have decided not to provide licence to the proposed solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram capable of processing about 500 tonnes of waste daily.

The move comes in the wake of renewed efforts by the Department of Local Self Government to establish a modern plant at the Kochi Corporation's Brahmapuram site, which falls within the limits of Kunnathunadu and Vadavucode-Puthencruz panchayats.

The facility is among the three such projects being planned by the government across the State.

Extending their unilateral support to the people of Vilappil panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram who protested against the dumping of waste at the Vilappilsala plant on Monday, Rama Saju, president of the Vadavucode-Puthencruz panchayat, and Shaila Noushad, president of Kunnathunadu grama panchayat, toldThe Hinduthat the government would have to face strong people's resistance against the move to set up a new plant at Brahmapuram.

Stating that the panchayats would not issue the license required for installing the plant, Ms. Saju said that the unchecked dumping of waste at the now defunct Brahmapuram plant had turned the lives of thousands of residents in Vadavucode-Puthencruz panchayats miserable. “Our wells have become polluted.

“People here experience a lot of health problems. Many people fled from here unable to bear the stench emanating from the plant,” she said.

Abdul Basheer K.A., convener of the Kochi Corporation Malinya Nikshepa Virudha Action Council, said that they were planning to approach the Vigilance Court seeking a detailed inquiry into allegations of corruption in the establishment of the now defunct plant of the Kochi Corporation at Brahmapuram.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2891134.ece

People block transport of garbage to Vilappilsala

2012-02-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Residents celebrate after their protests thwarted the

Corporation's move to resume garbage transportation

to the Vilappilsala solid waste plant.

Photo: S. Gopakumar

Protesters, including women and children, stood their ground in the face of arrest and teargas. In the end, their will prevailed.

The people of Vilappilsala, some 10,000 of them, defeated the City Corporation's attempt to resume transportation of garbage to the solid-waste treatment plant in the area on Monday.

They put up a strong resistance, and despite the deployment of 500 police personnel, officials had to decide to stop the transport.

The Kerala High Court, in its interim order on January 23, had allowed the transport of the garbage to the plant and directed the police to provide protection.

The protesters, including women and children, had gathered at the Sreekanta Sastha temple junction in the area from early in the morning, under the aegis of the Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samithi (people's association).

However, it was only around 1 p.m. that two garbage trucks, escorted by the police, reached Vilappilsala. K.P. Girija, Additional District Magistrate, reached the junction. A.J. Thomaskutty, Superintendent of Police, Rural, led the police team that accompanied the trucks.

Soon after they moved in, the police started arresting agitators in the front, most of whom were women who had tied themselves together with saris and shawls.

The police suspended arrests during lunchtime when the samithi started serving gruel to the agitators. The police started taking the arrested agitators to the Government Upper Primary School at Vilappilsala junction.

However, the situation turned slightly violent when a group of agitators blocked the third police vehicle carrying the arrested protesters around 50 metres from the junction. The police burst teargas shells and used stun grenades to prevent the violence from escalating as the protesters attacked the driver and threw stones at the bus and the vehicles parked nearby. Four policemen were injured in the incident.

Soon, District Collector K.N. Satheesh imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure at Vilappilsala and nearby Vilavoorkal panchayat. The police then decided to withdraw from the scene, suspending the transportation of garbage to the plant for the day.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/article2889579.ece

Corporation to dump garbage at quarry in Thonippara

2012-02-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

Mini Muringatheri

NEW SITE:The abandoned quarry at Thonippara.

Photo: K.C. Sowmish

Quarry can accommodate 25,000 truckloads of garbage

A lasting solution is in sight for the six-decade-old garbage woes of Lalur residents as the Thrissur Corporation is mooting a proposal to shift the accumulated garbage at Lalur dumpyard to an abandoned quarry at Thonippara, near Ramavaramapuram.

According to C.S. Sreenivasan, the Standing Committee Chairman (Health) of the city corporation, a technical sanction has already been received for the plan.

“The abandoned quarry in Thonippara has been identified as the most suitable location to shift the garbage by an expert committee. As the quarry is insulated with rock on all sides, chance for seepage of waste water is less. It does not have any houses in the 250-metre vicinity. We are in the process of preparing a detailed project report,” he said.

A final decision, however, would be taken after conducting a detailed environmental impact study. “We have to ensure that the land filling would not pollute the underground water,” he said.

“It is estimated that there are 18,000 truck-loads of accumulated garbage at Lalur. The quarry at Thonippara can contain more than 25,000 truck-loads,” he pointed out.

A high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in last November had directed the City Corporation to remove the garbage from the Lalur dumpyard before January.

The recent fire at Lalur dumpyard that lasted a week attracted widespread protest against the ineptitude of City Corporation in handling the garbage menace.

More than 100 families, living around the dumpyard, were evacuated as the ballooning toxic smoke hovered over the area.

Many people, including children and elders, were admitted to hospitals.

During a meeting with the Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy recently, Mayor I.P. Paul said that the Corporation was confident in finding a permanent solution to the garbage issue very soon. “The Corporation will implement the decentralized garbage management project in a time-bound manner,” he said.

The Corporation has plans to set up 1,000-1,500 small biogas plants in houses. The restaurants in the city have been issued notices to install their own waste treatment system.

The Samara Samithy, however, was not in a mood to be pacified by Corporations' promises.

“We are not ready to stop the agitation with the Corporation's empty promises. The vehicles carrying garbage will be blocked until the entire garbage is removed from the dumpyard. There is no change in our plan for indefinite strike from February 14,” said T. K. Vasu, Samithy chairman said.

Action council

Meanwhile, the residents of Thonippara have already formed an action council to protest against dumping of waste at the abandoned quarry.

“The quarry is a water source for the nearby areas, which never dries up throughout the year. Dumping of waste in it will pollute the underground water table in the area,” said A.P. Santhosh, convener of the action council.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2855992.ece

Panchayats to be empowered to ensure safe roads

2012-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Focus on community partnership to curb accidents

The 978 panchayats in the State will be empowered in road safety to enable local self-government institutions, people, and various organisations to come together to bring down the number of road accidents and injuries, and promote safety and well-being of the people.

The ‘Safe Community Programme for Panchayats' has been chalked out by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac) close on the heels of adopting the zero-accident policy to eliminate accidents by 2020 as part of observing 2010-20 as Road Safety Decade.

“The programme will use a bottom-up approach involving the people in addressing key injury problems related to traffic and other causes. It is also aimed at promoting the safety and well-being of the people as 80 per cent of the injuries on roads are traffic related,” Natpac Director B. Sridevi says.

Of the 1.74 lakh km of road network in the State, as much as 1.22 lakh km is under the panchayats. These roads are mostly unsurfaced and need substantial improvements in geometric conditions such as curves and blind spots. Traffic on these roads has increased substantially and consequently, the accident rate has gone up.

An integrated and comprehensive injury-control system with prevention, medical care, and rehabilitation as essential components in addressing community injury problems and a task force with representatives of the people, law enforcement, public health, education, business, public work offices, and traffic safety activists to provide input and direction to the programme will be the main elements.

The community will be empowered to conduct programmes to identify accident-prone locations and get the improvement plan implemented. Best practice programmes have been identified. These include programmes for road safety, motorcycle safety, speed management and aggressive drivers, pedestrian and bike safety, railway level-crossing, emergency medical services, youth programmes, occupant protection (seatbelts and headgear), alcohol and impaired driving, and data analysis and rehabilitation programmes for accident victims.

Mahesh Chand, Head, Traffic Safety Division, Natpac, says the programme is dedicated to a community partnership that will reduce injuries in the community and make an area safe to live and work. “We are helping the panchayats and it will be driven and owned by them. The panchayats will have to find the resources for implementing the plans from the State, Centre, and various agencies,” he said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2841834.ece

Ruckus at Corporation council meeting

2012-02-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Differences over swearing-in ceremony of newly elected councillor from Elathur

A meeting of the Kozhikode Corporation Council held here on Saturday witnessed noisy exchanges between the councillors of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF).

Mayor A.K. Premajam, who chaired the session in the afternoon, abruptly called off the meeting when the members from both sides began shouting at each other. However, the council — backed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)–led LDF — approved more than 100 items without any discussion in less than five minutes.

The trouble began as soon as the council began the proceedings for the day after expressing condolence over the death of Governor M.O.H. Farook and social critic Sukumar Azhikode. Socialist Janata (Democratic) [(SJ(D)] members C. Moinkutty and P. Kishenchand said the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected councillor from Elathur ward C.M. Sunilkumar (Congress) was not held in a suitable manner.

None of the Opposition members had been informed about the ceremony in held in the Mayor's chamber in the morning, they said. This led to arguments between the Opposition and ruling members. The Mayor clarified that the swearing-in ceremony was done as per the rules of the Kerala Municipal Act and that the Opposition councillors were raking up a controversy for no reason.

Soon afterwards, the Mayor announced that she was rejecting an emergency resolution moved by the Opposition leader M.T. Padma seeking the State government to take action against the CPI (M) activists on the charge of attempt to murder a Congress councillor T. Krishnadas on the polling day. The resolution was politically- motivated that deserved no merit for an emergency resolution, Prof. Premajam said. She said no further discussion would be entertained in the council in this regard. However, the Opposition stuck to its demand shouting slogans against the Mayor and the ruling CPI(M) councillors countering with hoots. Some of them also displayed placards that they had brought with them.

As the uproar continued without any signs of stopping, the Mayor asked Congress councillor K. Balagopalan to table his calling attention motion.

Later addressing a news conference, Prof. Premajam said the leaders of all parties had been informed about the swearing-in of the new councillor. But the Opposition members showed no civility even to turn up for the ceremony. The function could not be celebrated as the State government had declared seven-day mourning, she said.

The Mayor said she was in Thiruvananthapuram on the by-election day. She tried to visit Mr. Krishnadas at the Government Beach Hospital later but by then he had been discharged and he had left for his wife's residence. However, she contacted him over phone.

Earlier, Ms. Padma and Indian Union Muslim League member K. Mohammedali told presspersons that a conspiracy had been hatched to murder Mr. Krishnadas on the polling day.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2841926.ece

Health-wise

2012-02-08T23:19:00.001-08:00

by C. Maya

There is a push to adopt a holistic approach towards tackling lifestyle diseases, through early risk detection and prevention.

The healthiest State in India is on the fast track to becoming the ‘wealthiest,' in terms of the percentage of population who are obese and suffering from a multitude of risk factors, putting them at high risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases and stroke very early in life.

The late C. R. Soman, a renowned public health activist, had voiced his concern at least a decade or more ago about the rapid health transition that the State was undergoing.

He had pointed out that the achievements of the State in the past four decades — a dramatic decline in infant mortality and total fertility rate and rising life expectancy — were being eclipsed by a picture of increasing mortality in the middle age group, with nearly half the deaths a result of lifestyle diseases.

The population-based studies initiated by Health Action by People, an initiative that Dr. Soman was spearheading since 1998, gave the first ever indication about the State's future disease burden due to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

As on 2005, among the 35 years plus population in the State, the prevalence of diabetes ranged from 21 per cent in the rural areas to 28 per cent in the urban areas, while the prevalence of hypertension was 34 to 43 per cent in the same age group. About 38 to 54 per cent in the age group was overweight, while the average cholesterol levels in any segment of the State's population was 225 mg.

Five years later, the results of the community-based study of risk factors for NCDs, conducted jointly by Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, the public health wing of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and the Indian Council for Medical Research, published in January 2010, gives a similar picture.

Alarming figures

The study reported the prevalence of diabetes in the population to be 16.2 per cent; hypertension 32.7 per cent; 30.8 per cent were overweight, with abdominal obesity found in 39.4 per cent. 56.8 per cent of the population had cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dl.

“What was more alarming was the rural statistics. In the rural areas, diabetes was 20.6 per cent; hypertension 32.5 per cent; 21 per cent were overweight and those with high cholesterol, 56 per cent. All these figures for rural areas are almost on par with the figures for urban Delhi,” says K.R. Thankappan, professor and head of AMCHSS, who led the study.

The alarming proportion of the population who were either overweight or on their way to becoming obese because of a diet rich in saturated fats and an absolute lack of physical activity are the basic risk factors which seem to have ushered in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Women at risk

Obesity among women is being directly linked to the increase in the incidence of cardiovascular events among women and its effects go beyond the current generation.

As per the data of the Acute Coronary Syndrome Registry in the State, the ratio of men and women admitted to the coronary ICUs in 1967 with heart attacks was 24:1. In 1990, this ratio came down to 9:1, and the current ratio is 4:1, which is alarmingly high.

The incidence of breast cancer has also gone up. In 1985, the incidence rate was eight per one lakh population. By 2010, the breast cancer incidence had reached a whopping 32 per one lakh population, with about 25 per cent women under the age of 35 yearsGestational diabetes among women (again, obesity being the underlying factor) has grown four fold in the past few years and there also seems to be an epidemic of PCOS and thyroid diseases among adolescent girls or the future mothers of the next generation

The greatest contributor to this state of affairs has to be the lack of physical activity, apart from a diet which is high in fat and very low in fibre. The consumption of fruits and vegetables is very poor among the adolescents as well as the adults, doctors point out.

An estimated 50 per cent girls/women between 15 to 35 years in the State have elevated lipid levels (cholesterol, triglycerides) and low HDL, which is another risk factor for heart diseases.

In 2010, a study conducted among 18,000 school children at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, had reported high blood pressure among girls just into puberty.

Prevention better than cure

The past five years have seen a slew of public education campaigns on prevention of lifestyle diseases through a healthy diet, adequate physical activity and early management of risk factors, though much of the initiatives have come from the private sector.

The downside of it was that diabetes management became a super specialty, mostly run by the private sector, with expensive new medicines and new generation insulins. Public health activists advocated a preventive public health approach, with common-sense management of the disease, the thrust being on increased physical activity and a sensible, low fat diet.

According to the Union Ministry of Health, “the projected number of deaths in India attributable to chronic diseases has risen from 3.78 million in 1990 (40.4 per cent of all deaths) to an expected 7.63 million in 2020 (66.7 per cent of all deaths).

The challenge posed by the burden of NCDs is not just limited to Kerala, though the State certainly seems to have some of the highest prevalence rates for diabetes and CVD.

In 2007, a National Programme on Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPDCS) was launched on a pilot basis in 10 states, including Kerala.

The programme has now been re-launched as the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).

In 2009, through the National Rural Health Mission, Kerala had launched its own initiative at tackling the NCD burden by launching a pilot project for early intervention in two districts, Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad in 2009, covering 360 sub-centres in all. The accent of the programme was on early identification and treatment of pre-diabetic persons, case management at the PHC level, uninterrupted drug supply and regular follow-ups.

The working group on health for the 12th Plan points out that the public health system is not oriented to the prevention and management of lifestyle related diseases and that Kerala should aim at integrating community-based prevention into primary health care.

It mooted that the control and management of NCDs should adopt a holistic approach leading from preventive action for the healthy, screening for the high risk population with primary care for the affected.

The programme aims at public education and early identification of risk factors, with the initial screening at the population-level by health workers so that early diagnosis and cost-effective management can be facilitated right from the primary health centre to the tertiary level.

Accordingly, NRHM will now open lifestyle clinics across the State, which will conduct monthly screenings, with registers maintained at sub-centre levels of those above 30 years and their entire health records.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-editorialfeatures/article2870333.ece

Corporation to intensify mosquito control measures

2012-02-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Clearing of silt from drains will be streamlined, says Mayor

Mosquito control operations and clearing of silt from the drains will be streamlined in the city, Mayor Tony Chammany said here on Wednesday.

Replying to a debate in the Corporation Council meeting, Mr. Chammany instructed the health officer of the corporation to prepare a schedule for the anti-mosquito drive, including fogging operations.

The Mayor told the health officials that there were several complaints from the councillors and general public that the anti-mosquito operations were not effective. A schedule for the centralised fogging operations should be prepared and the visit of the team should be communicated to the respective councillors well in advance, he suggested.

Some councillors complained that the flooding of the city drains with saline water to check breeding of mosquito larvae was not effective as the silt that has accumulated in them has not been cleared. Electric motors were not installed in some of the tanker lorries that were engaged for flushing saline water, complained the councillors. The Mayor instructed the health officer to conduct inspections for violation contract conditions and check the salinity level of the water that was used.

The health officer informed the council that the consignments of chemicals used for fogging has reached the Walayar check post and would be available by Thursday evening for use. The Mayor also suggested that a meeting of health inspectors should be convened to streamline the work.

Traders' demand

The civic authorities have decided to convene a special council for discussing the issue of revision of licence fee for traders.

A joint meeting of the leaders of political parties and representatives of the traders will be convened before the special council meeting for arriving at a consensus regarding the tariff. The zonal and circle offices of the civic body will be repaired shortly and the corporation is in the process of preparing an estimate for the work, the council was informed.

A.R. Padmadas complained that the eviction drive against the encroachers in Fort Kochi turned out to be a futile exercise as the unauthorised occupants had returned to the area shortly after the drive. Leno Jacob demanded that the unauthorised constructions in the city by some trade unions too should be removed. Several councillors also raised the issue of drinking water shortage in the city.

Those who took part in the discussion were Development Standing Committee chairman T.J. Vinod, M.P. Maheshkumar, K.R. Premakumar, V.K. Minimol, Shyamala S. Prabhu, Thampi Subramanian, K.N. Sunilkumar, P.S. Prakash, N.A. Shafeek and Sojan Antony.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2874055.ece

Court order to city Corporation

2012-02-08T23:14:00.001-08:00

Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted one more week's time for the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation to complete treatment of solid waste piled up at the Vilappilsala waste treatment plant premises.

The Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice V .Chithambaresh, granted time in view of the submission made by counsel for Thiruvananthapuram Corporation that at present only the accumulated waste was treated due to protest by the residents. Corporation counsel said though the court had permitted them to open the lock of the plant, it could only be done after a week. The court then orally observed that it might consider sending the Advocate Commissioner once more for inspecting the site.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2874281.ece

Councillors to conduct campaign at Lalur

2012-02-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Aim to convince residents of Lalur that Corporation is serious in its effort

Councillors of the Thrissur Corporation will conduct a door-to-door campaign at Lalur on Wednesday to explain the civic body's plans for finding a permanent solution for the garbage problem. According to C. S. Srinivasan, Corporation's Standing Committee chairman (Health), the objective of the campaign was to convince the residents of Lalur that the Corporation was serious in its effort.

“The Corporation has many practical difficulties as it is trying to tackle a six-decade-old problem. The major crisis is to find a suitable place to shift the accumulated garbage at Lalur. But the civic body is determined to find a solution,” he said.

The Corporation has identified an abandoned quarry at Thonippara, near Ramavarmapuram, to shift the garbage from Lalur. “The local residents at Thonippara have raised opposition against dumping the waste in the quarry. However, we are hoping to reach a political consensus in the issue,” he said.

The garbage disposal from the city has been affected for the last 16 days as the protesting residents blocked the vehicles carrying garbage from dumping waste at the Lalur dumping yard. Though the Corporation planned to hold an all-party meeting on Tuesday to reach a political consensus on the issue, the meeting was cancelled as most of the CPI(M) leaders were out of the city to participate in the Party Congress.

“The situation cannot be prolonged like this. We have to remove the garbage from the city to avoid outbreak of epidemics. At present, the corporation has no other option left than dumping it at Lalur,” the corporation sources said.

The civic body has planned a series of short-term and long-term projects including setting up of decentralised waste treatment plants at various places and bio-gas plants at households to tackle the garbage issue. Though corporation planned to resume the garbage disposal with police protection, the plan was cancelled later.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2871281.ece

'Decentralisation of waste management needed'

2012-02-06T04:26:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

Minister for Co-operation C. N. Balakrishnan has said that decentralisation of waste management was the only lasting solution for the garbage menace faced by the city.

Addressing the annual convention of the District Residents' Apex Council, Thrissur, at the Kerala Sahitya Akademi hall here on Sunday, he said people should take responsibility for treating the waste they produced.

“Waste generated by the whole of the city should not be dumped in one place. While providing licence for apartments, the City Corporation should ensure that they have proper waste management system,” he said.

The current discussions on waste management eluded practical solutions, he alleged.

The Minister urged the co-operation to identify areas for setting up decentralised waste treatment centres. Replacing the accumulated garbage to another place was not a lasting solution, he added.

The Minister said alcoholism was ruining the creative young force of the State. Wide awareness programme should be conducted for rescuing the youth addicted to liquor, he said.

Therambil Ramakrishnan, MLA, released the council's souvenir. “Mayor I.P. Paul was the chief guest at the function.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2864740.ece

Planning Board gets district's list

2012-02-06T04:14:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

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The district administration, on Saturday, submitted a detailed list of priority projects to the State Planning Board for immediate consideration.

Altogether 10 selected proposals were listed by the administration. District Collector P.B. Salim, who submitted the proposals to Planning Board Vice-Chairman K.M. Chandrasekhar during a review meeting here, said the implementation of the projects on a fast-track basis would address several of pending development concerns of the district.

Mono-rail

The realisation of the mono-rail project and the completion of pending development work on National Highway - 17 should be given priority, he said.

Development of inland waterways, construction of an alternative ghat road from Thamarassery to Wayanad, setting up of a water treatment facility at the Kozhikode Medical College, and utilisation of the land owned by the Mavoor Gwalior Rayons were among the other demands.

The proposals lays stress on the need to clear the legalities related to the conversion of industrial land at Mavoor Gwalior Rayons to make it an education hub for vocational skill development. Over 325 acres of land was available, the report said.

Mr. Chandrasekhar said he would place the recommendations before the Chief Minister. He also directed Dr. Salim to submit a report on the present status of each project.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2862384.ece

Hearing on writ plea filed by firm adjourned

2012-02-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has adjourned to next week the hearing on a writ petition filed by a private company seeking police protection for the construction of a mobile tower at Manjeri. The Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Majula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramchandra Menon directed the State government, the Manjeri municipality, and other respondents to file an affidavit.

The petition was filed by Posidon Infrastructure Private Ltd.

According to it, people in the area were obstructing the construction of the tower. The counsel for the Manjeri municipality submitted that the civic body had cancelled the permission given for the construction of the tower and issued a memo asking the company to stop construction activities.

The memo was issued in the wake of objections raised by the public against the construction of the tower.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2862312.ece

Hearths unlit, hearts fume at Vilappilsala

2012-02-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

by G. Anand

Villagers say they are readying for intense stir

Keeping guard:Police at the gates of the Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant after it was reopened on Saturday.— Photo: S. Gopakumar

Visitors from the city were scarcely welcome at Vilappil panchayat on Saturday.

The local populace seemed to be on the edge again, all of them veterans of the long drawn out and seemingly endless agitation against the dumping of urban waste on the expansive grounds of the State-owned garbage treatment plant in their village.

More than 4,000 of them, mostly women and youth, had gathered at the nearby junction, 2 km away from the plant, to protest against its reopening following a High Court order.

From early morning, they eagerly listened to an array of indignant speakers who exhorted them to prevent the City Corporation's “hated” garbage trucks from entering the hilly, verdant and sleepy hamlet “at any cost.”

Till the panchayat closed down the plant under pressure from the local populace in January, vigilante groups of residents had been on the stake-out in the locality to prevent the malodorous night-time convoys of trucks carrying urban waste from reaching the plant.

Now they were prepared for the next phase of the agitation, which they warned would be more “intense.”

A 55-year-old told a group of journalists that “you are all with rich city dwellers.” Many protestors seemed to echo her view of newsmen. Another pointed out that the quantum of dumped waste left to stink in the open at the plant every night was several times more than its treatment capacity, an estimated 90 tonnes. Urbanites seemed scarcely concerned whether the waste they generated was properly treated or posed any problem to the villagers who were fated to bear the city's garbage burden, he said.

The police seemed caught in a dilemma. A senior officer said it would take a “hard heart” to use force and register cases against a populace that seemed genuinely aggrieved.

He said scores of residents were already named as accused in rioting, destruction of public property, unlawful assembly and illegal detention registered in connection with the protests.

The police said they expected “extreme” forms of protest by a miniscule but “fiery” section of protestors. The police said providing armed escort to garbage convoys on all nights would deplete their already stretched resources.

On Saturday, few hearths were lit at Vilappilsala homes. Instead, the women set up community kitchens that served steaming rice-gruel to protesters. They said they were serving a “funeral fare” to protest the plant's opening. However, the assembly seemed more like one big family get-together than a group of mourners keeping vigil at a funeral.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2862537.ece

Vilappilsala plant reopened

2012-02-06T04:08:00.001-08:00

Staff Reporter

High Court had issued interim order directing the opening of the plant

The garbage treatment plant of the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation at Vilappilsala, which was closed down by the Vilappil panchayat, where the plant is situated, more than a month ago was reopened on Saturday.

The civic body had received an interim order from the Kerala High Court last month to reopen the plant until an alternative arrangement was made to process garbage collected from the city. The court directed the State government to provide police protection to the Corporation workers for reopening the plant and transporting garbage.

“We are merely complying with the court order. As per the order, the Corporation has to first process the accumulated garbage and mobilise workers for the construction works going on inside the plant before restarting garbage collection and transportation from the city. The High Court order makes it very clear that the Vilappilsala plant must be reopened until an alternative arrangement was made for treating waste collected from the city,” City Mayor K. Chandrika said on Saturday.

The Corporation would resume transportation of garbage to the solid waste treatment plant on February 13. Before that the accumulated untreated garbage inside the plant would be processed, the Mayor said.

Ms. Chandrika said that she had held discussions with top police officials on Friday to ensure police protection for reopening and running the plant as per the High Court order. “We are confident that we will be able to transport garbage to the plant with police protection from February 13. If the police or State government fails to help us in carrying out our duties it will be a clear case of contempt of court,” Ms Chandrika said.

Local body stand

Meanwhile, Vilappil panchayat president Shobhana Kumari said that the panchayat had not received any official communication regarding the reopening of the plant. “We only came to know about it from the people after police reached there. The panchayat respects the High Court decision. For the same reason, we will not oppose the move. However, if the Corporation tries to bring garbage collected from the city to the plant, the people of Vilappil will oppose it and the panchayat will only take a stand favouring the people,” Ms. Shobhana Kumari said.

Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samithi convener S. Burhan reiterated that the samithi would oppose any move to transport garbage from the city to the plant.

“We are firm on our stand. We will not allow a single garbage truck to enter the Vilappilsala plant,” he said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2862318.ece

Garbage piles up in Thrissur as corporation remains inactive

2012-02-06T04:06:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Drainage canals clogged with waste dumped into them

A cow feeding from the partly burnt

garbage near the north bus stand in

Thrissur on Saturday

PHOTO: K.C. Sowmish

The garbage problem continues to plague the city with the Thrissur Corporation failing to clear the accumulated waste even after two weeks.

Garbage disposal from the city was affected as residents of Lalur, the corporation's waste disposal site, blocked vehicles transporting garbage to the dumping yard following a fire that broke out at the trenching ground.

Garbage is lying littered in the lanes and bylanes of the city. The stench emanating from the garbage is unbearable and stray dogs and cows feeding on the rotting garbage are a common sight.

P.S. Ramaswamy, a resident of Punkunnam said: “The garbage stinks a lot and people are forced to burn it. The resultant smoke causes major respiratory problems.”

Lakshmi Mohan, another resident at Patturaikkal said: “As sanitation workers are not collecting waste from households, people began throwing garbage on the road. The road stinks and poses health problems with flies and mosquitoes swarming over the waste.”

Most of the drainage canals in the city are clogged after garbage was dumped into them. Ramachandran Nair, a senior citizen, said: “It has become difficult to cross the road as stray dogs are all over the road eating from the garbage.” Pedestrians and two-wheeler riders complain that walking or riding in the night has become risky as the dogs chase them.

C.S. Sreenivasan, the Standing Committee Chairman (Health) of the City Corporation, said the corporation would resume collection of garbage from Monday. “The civic body has sought police protection for dumping garbage at Lalur. The corporation is trying its best to find a solution to Lalur's problem. But for now, we are left with no option other than dumping the waste at Lalur,” he said.” The accumulated garbage at the Lalur dumping yard will be removed soon. We plan to use the garbage removed from Lalur for land-filling at abandoned quarries,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lalur Malineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithy said its members would continue the agitation until the accumulated garbage was removed from the dumping yard.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2862550.ece

Powers of local bodies restored

2012-02-06T04:04:00.001-08:00

Minister for Urban Affairs P.K. Kunhalikutty, on Friday, restored the powers of corporations and municipalities to issue licence to set up liquor outlets. The powers of urban civic bodies on this score were scrapped in 1999. Various social, political, and cultural organisations had submitted memoranda to the government for restoring the powers.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2859563.ece

Vigilance raid at panchayat office

2012-01-31T22:59:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Crackdown:Vigilance officials

conducting a raid on the Karalam

panchayat officeon Monday.—

Photo: By Special Arrangement

Vigilance officials on Monday conducted a raid on the Karalam panchayat office, near here.

A vigilance team led by Dy.S.P. S.R. Jyothish Kumar conducted the raid following an allegation of corruption in the purchase of land for an industrial centre for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at Vellayani. It was alleged that the panchayat had not followed procedure before buying the land. The vigilance team seized the documents related to the land deal.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2846478.ece

Call to protect Kozhencherry fields

2012-01-31T22:50:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

The Kozhencherry-based eco-group Pampa Parirakshana Samiti (PPS) has called upon the government and the district authorities to take effective steps to protect the wetlands and paddy fields in different parts of the district from encroachment and conversion.

In a statement here on Monday, PPS general secretary N.K. Sukumaran Nair said a large extent of the Aranmula paddy fields (puncha) had got transformed into wetland owing to prolonged water-logging and absence of cultivation over the past two decades. These wetland-cum-paddy fields, along with the Pampa river, have been regarded as the lifeline of Aranmula and surrounding villages because of their major role in groundwater replenishment, acting as a major provider of potable water to the thousands of families in the region, Mr Nair said.

‘Illegal' conversion

According to Mr. Nair, partial conversion of the Kozhithode stream, a natural flood escape route connecting the puncha with the Pampa, coupled with large-scale illegal conversion of the paddy fields, has done irreparable damage to the environment and ecology of the region.

The PPS leader alleged that the paddy field conversion at Aranmula was done in gross violation of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy land and Wetland Act, propping up the idea of a private international airport project with a dubious design to betray the innocent villagers. Leaders of various political parties, people's representatives, and, of course, the officialdom, extended silent support to the culprits. Wetlands are an important eco-system essential for the very existence of life on earth and it is high time the government and people's representatives took care to conserve it.

Mr. Nair said that an airport at Aranmula would require not less than 20 to 30 lakh lorry loads of earth and the promoters would have to demolish almost all hills in nearby villages. People's representatives should have a rethinking on their response to the private airport project.

Promotion of paddy

Communist Party of India (CPI) district secretary P. Prasad called upon the government and the Agriculture Department to take necessary initiatives to launch cultivation in the Aranmula puncha by involving Kudumbasree units. The government should take over the illegally converted land at Aranmula, take necessary environment conservation measures, and convert it into a model farmland.

He called upon the government to cancel the notification of the Industries Department declaring 500 acres of land at Aranmula, Mallappuzhassery, and Kidangannur villages as industrial area. The CPI would launch a massive agitation if the government failed to act.

The All India Youth Federation district unit (AIYF), in a statement, said it would organise a rally protesting against the airport project at Aranmula on February 3. AIYF State secretary K. Rajan and CPI district secretary P. Prasad would address the rally.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2846504.ece

From food security to food justice

2012-01-31T22:45:00.000-08:00

by Ananya Mukherjee

If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest — almost the size of Indonesia. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 237.7 million Indians are currently undernourished (up from 224.6 million in 2008). And it is far worse if we use the minimal calorie intake norms accepted officially in India. By those counts (2200 rural/2100 urban), the number of Indians who cannot afford the daily minimum could equal the entire population of Europe.

Yet, the Indian elite shrieks at the prospect of formalising a universal right to food. Notwithstanding the collective moral deficit this reveals, it also shows that the millions of Indians whose food rights are so flagrantly violated are completely voiceless in the policy space. India's problem is not only to secure food, but to secure food justice.

What can food justice practically mean? First, to prevent situations where grains rot while people die — a very basic principle of distributive justice. But it has to mean a lot more: people must have the right to produce food with dignity, have control over the parameters of production, get just value for their labour and their produce. Mainstream notions of food security ignore this dimension.

Food justice must entail both production and distribution. Its fundamental premise must be that governments have a non-negotiable obligation to address food insecurity. They must also address the structural factors that engender that insecurity. Most governments, however, appear neither willing nor able to deliver food justice. It needs therefore the devolution of power and resources to the local level, where millions of protagonists, with their knowledge of local needs and situations, can create a just food economy.

Collective struggle

This is not quite as utopian as it may sound. Something on these lines has been unfolding in Kerala — a collective struggle of close to a quarter million women who are farming nearly 10 million acres of land. The experiment, “Sangha Krishi,” or group farming, is part of Kerala's anti-poverty programme “Kudumbashree.” Initiated in 2007, it was seen as a means to enhance local food production. Kerala's women embraced this vision enthusiastically. As many as 44, 225 collectives of women farmers have sprung up across the State. These collectives lease fallow land, rejuvenate it, farm it and then either sell the produce or use it for consumption, depending on the needs of members. On an average, Kudumbashree farmers earn Rs.15,000-25,000 per year (sometimes higher, depending on the crops and the number of yields annually).

Kudumbashree is a network of 4 million women, mostly below the poverty line. It is not a mere ‘project' or a ‘programme' but a social space where marginalised women can collectively pursue their needs and aspirations. The primary unit of Kudumbashree is the neighbourhood group (NHG). Each NHG consists of 10-20 women; for an overwhelming majority, the NHG is their first ever space outside the home. NHGs are federated into an Area Development Society (ADS) and these are in turn federated into Community Development Societies (CDSs) at the panchayat level. Today, there are 213,000 NHGs all over Kerala. Kudumbashree office-bearers are elected, a crucial process for its members. “We are poor. We don't have money or connections to get elected — only our service,” is a common refrain. These elections bring women into politics. And they bring with them a different set of values that can change politics.

The NHG is very different from a self-help group (SHG) in that it is structurally linked to the State (through the institutions of local self-government). This ensures that local development reflects the needs and aspirations of communities, who are not reduced to mere “executors” of government programmes. What is sought is a synergy between democratisation and poverty reduction; with Kudumbashree, this occurs through the mobilisation of poor women's leadership and solidarity. “Sangha Krishi” or group farming is just one example of how this works. It is transforming the socio-political space that women inhabit — who in turn transform that space in vital ways.

This experiment is having three major consequences. First, there is a palpable shift in the role of women in Kerala's agriculture. This was earlier limited to daily wage work in plantations — at wages much lower than those earned by men. Thousands of Kudumbashree women — hitherto underpaid agricultural labourers — have abandoned wage work to become independent producers. Many others combine wage work with farming. With independent production comes control over one's time and labour, over crops and production methods and, most significantly, over the produce. Since the farmers are primarily poor women, they often decide to use a part of their produce to meet their own needs, rather than selling it. Every group takes this decision democratically, depending on levels of food insecurity of their members. In Idukki, where the terrain prevents easy market access and food insecurity is higher, farmers take more of their produce home — as opposed to Thiruvananthapuram where market access is better and returns are higher.

Sangha Krishi

Second, “Sangha Krishi” has enabled women to salvage their dignity and livelihoods amidst immense adversity. Take the story of Subaida in Malappuram. Once widowed and once deserted, with three young children, she found no means of survival other than cleaning dead bodies. Hardly adequate as a livelihood, it also brought her unbearable social ostracism. Now Subaida is a proud member of a farming collective and wants to enter politics. In the nine districts this writer visited, there was a visible, passionate commitment to social inclusion amongst Kudumbashree farmers.

Our survey of 100 collectives across 14 districts found that 15 per cent of the farmers were Dalits and Adivasis and 32 per cent came from the minority communities.

Third, “Sangha Krishi” is producing important consequences for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Kerala. Because of Kerala's high wages for men, the MGNREGS in Kerala has become predominantly a space for women (93 per cent of the employment generated has gone to women where the national average is 50). From the beginning, synergies were sought between the MGNREGS, the People's Plan and Kudumbashree. Kudumbashree farmers strongly feel this has transformed MGNREGS work.

“We have created life … and food, which gives life, not just 100 days of manual labour,” said a Perambra farmer. In Perambra, Kudumbashree women, working with the panchayat, have rejuvenated 140 acres that lay fallow for 26 years. It now grows rice, vegetables and tapioca. Farmers also receive two special incentives — an ‘area incentive' for developing land and a ‘production incentive' for achieving certain levels of productivity. These amounted to over Rs.200 million in 2009-10. They were combined with subsidised loans from banks and the State, and seeds, input and equipment from Krishi Bhavan and the panchayats.

Challenges

However, serious challenges remain. Kudumbashree farmers are predominantly landless women working on leased land; there is no certainty of tenure. Lack of ownership also restricts access to credit, since they cannot offer formal guarantees on the land they farm. Whenever possible, Kudumbashree collectives have started buying land to overcome this uncertainty. But an alternative institutional solution is clearly needed. It is also difficult for women to access resources and technical know-how — the relevant institutions (such as crop committees) are oriented towards male farmers. There is also no mechanism of risk insurance.

Is this a sustainable, replicable model of food security? It is certainly one worth serious analysis. First, this concerted effort to encourage agriculture is occurring when farmers elsewhere are forced to exit farming — in large numbers. It re-connects food security to livelihoods, as any serious food policy must. But more importantly, the value of Sangha Krishi lies in that it has become the manifestation of a deep-rooted consciousness about food justice amongst Kerala's women. Kannyama, the president of Idamalakudy, Kerala's first tribal panchayat, says she wants to make her community entirely self-sufficient in food. She wants Sangha Krishi produce to feed every school and anganwadi in her panchayat — to ensure that children get local, chemical-free food. Elsewhere, Kudumbashree farmers plan to protest the commercialisation of land. Even in the tough terrain of Idukki's Vathikudy panchayat, women were taking a census of fallow land in the area that they could cultivate. Some 100,000 women practise organic farming and more wish to. Kudumbashree farmers speak passionately about preventing ecological devastation through alternative farming methods.

In the world of Sangha Krishi, food is a reflection of social relations. And only new social relations of food, not political manoeuvres, can combat the twin violence of hunger and injustice.

(Ananya Mukherjee is Professor and Chair of Political Science at York University, Toronto. Her latest work is a co-edited volume in collaboration with UNRISD, Geneva(Business Regulation and Non-state actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development?Routledge Studies in Development Economics, 2012.))

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article2848954.ece

Physical fitness mission for State

2012-01-31T22:40:00.000-08:00

by A. Vinod

Campaign to drive home the message of a healthy lifestyle

The government, as a measure to check the declining standards of physical fitness among the people at large, will establish a special vehicle as part of its sports policy initiatives.

Named the Kerala State Physical Fitness Mission (KSPFM), it will be created under the Sports Department and principally aims at taking the message of positive effects of a physically active life among the people and thereby helping them attain and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

And to achieve this, it will design a mass campaign so as to educate the people about the ill effects of regular alcohol use, smoking, and other vices and conduct intervention programmes involving leaders of society, captains of industry, voluntary groups, and non-governmental organisations for the implementation of its various programmes. The mission will also conduct periodic reviews and supervise the working of physical fitness and health clubs in an effort to ensure that people are not exposed to the dangers of unscientific modules besides running the Total Physical Fitness Programme (TPFP) now being managed by the Kerala State Sports Council.

Awards

In order to achieve its various initiatives, the KSPFM will work in tandem with the Departments of Education, Health, and Local Self-Government.

Further, it will also institute awards at various levels so as to help people to remain motivated.

The government intervention to create such a mission, dedicated fully to physical fitness for the first time in the country, has indeed been prompted by the poor results returned by school students in the tests conducted as part of the TPFP over the last three years and predictions to the effect that a sizeable population in the State could be inflicted with either heart diseases, high blood pressure, and diabetes by 2030.

The draft policy document indicates that the KSPFM – modelled on the lines of the hugely successful State Literacy Mission – will be working out a variety of schemes aimed at different sections of society.

Already, there are plans to create a congenial environment for children studying in the lower primary section to take up regular physical activity through the ‘Play a Game, Play for Fun' scheme announced in this year's budget.

This scheme is likely to be launched on a pilot basis across select schools in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Kozhikode by early February.

Besides this, the various other schemes of the KSPFM will be aimed at adolescent children, women, the elderly, and the workforce at the public and the private sector.

It will also actively promote the establishment of walking or jogging clubs across all areas in the State with the help of local sports clubs and resident welfare associations.

Government sources said the modalities of the organisational structure of the KSPFM would be worked out only when the final sports policy document was given its finishing touches.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2843964.ece

Protesters block disposal site; garbage piles up in Thrissur

2012-01-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter

A pile of garbage lies uncleared on the

Thrissur Railway station Road on Saturday

Photo: K.C. Sowmish

The fire at the Lalur garbage dumping yard, which has been continuing for the sixth day on Saturday, has had a catastrophic effect on city life in Thrissur. Garbage disposal from the city was affected as residents of Lalur, the Thrissur Corporation's garbage disposal site, blocked vehicles transporting garbage to the dumping yard.The Lalur Malineekarana Virudha Samara Samithy said it would continue the agitation until the corporation guaranteed time-bound removal of garbage from the dumping yard.

Sanitation workers have not collected waste in the Corporation area for the past six days. Mounds of garbage piled up in every street corner have turned the city into a huge garbage dump leaving a stench. Stray dogs and cattle feasting on heaps of garbage is a common sight even in posh localities.

Scene at the Shakthan Thampuran market is worse. The corporation urged the city dwellers to co-operate with the civic body to handle the situation.

“People should try to treat the biodegradable wastes at their houses. The corporation will not be able to collect the household waste until the fire at the Lalur dumping yard is brought under control,” said C. S. Srinivasan, standing committee chairman of the Corporation.

Urge to shut the plant

Lalur residents asked the authorities to close down the Lalur treatment plant. They alleged that the corporation had certain hidden agenda in the issue and was not transparent in the entire process. They alleged that they had been denied all democratic rights for the last six decades. “All wells in the vicinity are highly contaminated. Most of the residents suffer from one disease or the other,” they said.

The Samara Samithy said the city corporation was trying to sabotage the Lalur Model Project for Solid Waste Management.

“On request of the City Corporation, the government removed the chief coordinator of the LAMPS. But no one had been appointed in the post so far,” it said.

The Samara Samithy is planning an indefinite fast in front of the City Corporation office from February 14 against the ineptitude of the civic body to find a lasting solution to the garbage problem.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2842101.ece

‘Vision 2030' to change face of Kerala: Pitroda

2012-01-31T22:17:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Scheme to be mentored by Sam Pitroda

A high-speed rail corridor from Mangalapuram to Thiruvananthapuram, a knowledge city in the capital city, and a State-wide mobile phone-enabled health insurance scheme are among the 10-point ‘Vision 2030' for Kerala, a mega-scheme which will be mentored by Sam Pitroda the chairman of the National Innovation Council.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday along with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Mr. Pitroda said all the projects envisaged in Vision 2030 need not actually fructify. Even if half the schemes in the list get implemented, they would change the face of Kerala.

The biggest of all the projects in Vision 2030 is the high-speed rail corridor. This project alone would take a decade to materialise, he said.

Kerala's inland waterway system could be leveraged to put in place coastal freight navigation system. A large-scale shift in freight movement to boats or barges would reduce to a great extent the traffic congestion in the State's roads.

The knowledge city in Thiruvananthapuram would contain universities, including foreign universities, research laboratories and institutes, commercial and residential units, and cultural spaces.

The mobile-enabled health insurance scheme would utilise the State's high tele-density to roll out a comprehensive insurance scheme.

The premium for the same could be paid through the monthly mobile phone bill. Also in the offing is a scheme to make Kerala the Ayurveda capital of India.

Another Vision 2030 scheme is to establish modern waste treatment systems in all districts.

The goal of all these systems would be the generation of energy. The scheme to boost Kerala's traditional industries would target coir, cashew, and handloom. New technology, methodology, and tools would be ushered in to modernise traditional industries.

In order that the people are able to enjoy efficient delivery of government services, a scheme would be drawn up to computerise all levels of the government apparatus.

A scheme to connect all panchayats through a broadband internet system would also be fleshed out.

This would be used to impart vocational skills to unemployed youth.

Vision 2030 is also likely to feature a scheme to productively utilise — in schools and other social activities — the talents of retired government employees, Mr. Pitroda said.

The implementation of these schemes would take the public private participation (PPP) route. Domain experts would be asked to study each of these ideas and come up with feasibility reports on each, he said. Mr. Chandy told the press conference that Vision 2030 was being drawn up so that Kerala did not miss any more buses on the development front.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2833418.ece

Vilappilsala plant can set a model, say experts

2012-01-28T03:15:00.001-08:00

by Sangeetha Unnithan

Stress need for its uprade and proper management

If properly managed and operated, the Vilappilsala plant can be upgraded as the best solid-waste treatment plant in the country, experts have said.

Once the leachate treatment plant and sanitary landfill inside the plant are commissioned, the Vilappilsala plant can become a model waste treatment plant, they have said..

“The windrow composting technology used in the Vilappilsala plant is undoubtedly the best available technology for processing biodegradable waste. It is an internationally accepted organic-waste-processing technology, which is also mooted by the Union Ministry of Environment,” Babu Ambat, executive director of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), said.

CED, an agency providing technical support to waste treatment plants in various States, has been operating the plant for the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation for the past four years.

Mr. Ambat said the plant at Vilappilsala, designed and constructed by the Poabson Group, was one of the best in the State. “There have been issues of space in the processing plant as it was not enough to properly process the 250 tonnes of waste that was brought to the plant daily. This was also the reason for the odour problem there (because of lack of aeration facility). But now, the area of the processing plant is being doubled to two lakh sq.ft,” he said.

Social activist and rural technology exponent R.V.G. Menon said that unlike high-technology solutions such as pyrolisis and incineration, composting, as done in Vilappilsala, was best suited for treatment of biodegradable waste in the State.

“The biodegradable waste generated in our climatic condition has about 70 per cent moisture. But for technologies such as pyrolisis and incineration, dry waste is best suited as it has high energy content. Experts all over the world say that the best technology for organic waste with high moisture content is composting or biogas,” Mr. Menon said.

‘Proper aeration'

He, however, said the composting facility at Vilappilsala could be upgraded by facilitating proper aeration. In the case of plastic waste, the Corporation could think of transporting plastic to recycling units outside the State after converting them into pellets using plastic shredders.

“Segregating plastic and organic waste is pertinent. Although plastic shredders can be installed at Vilappilsala, it should be ensured that it is properly segregated and does not get into the composting facility,” he said.

While the experts concede that decentralised waste treatment facilities in different parts of the city are required to bring down the volume of waste transported to Vilappilsala, a centralised treatment plant is also inevitable for a city such as Thiruvananthapuram.

Social and environmental activist B.R.P. Bhaskar said that while the conventional method of taking the entire municipal waste for processing to far-off villages was not feasible in the State because of its sheer density of population, source-level processing was also only a partial solution.

“Not all waste generated in a household can be treated there. That is why we require an integrated method of decentralised and centralised facility. The Vilappilsala plant can be reopened as a centralised plant, but only after the authorities convince the people there and assure them that the plant will henceforth be properly managed without endangering their health or environment,” he said.

Mr. Menon said that as long as the issues at the Vilappilsala plant remained unresolved, there would be public opposition to setting up plants elsewhere.

“The Vilappilsala plant can no more be treated as a dump of the city. The volume of waste taken to the plant has to be brought down significantly,” said Costford director P.B. Sajan.

Mr. Sajan put forth a novel idea to ensure efficient management of the plant. “Why not involve the Vilappil panchayat in the plant operation. This way, they can ensure that the plant is properly managed and also make it an income generating initiative by selling the manure produced there. The Corporation should, of course, pay the operational expenses,” he said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2839382.ece

Proposal to take excess garbage to Vilappilsala

2012-01-28T03:13:00.001-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Source-level treatment of waste to be promoted

CRISIS MANAGEMENT:Ministers P.K. Kunhalikutty
and V.S. Sivakumar and Mayor K. Chandrika
attending an all-party meeting on the Vilappilsala
garbage plant issue, in the city on Tuesday
.— Photo: S. Gopakumar

Committing itself to continuing with the practice of treatment of garbage at source in the capital city, the government on Tuesday made out a case for a small quantity of garbage to be taken to the garbage treatment plant at Vilappilsala for treatment.

This proposal was mooted by Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty during talks with the representatives of the Vilappil Samara Samithi and later at an all-party meeting on the garbage issue.

A large portion of the garbage generated in the capital city would either be treated at source or be buried in identified spots. However, there would still be some tonnage of garbage left out. This would be taken to Vilappilsala till the network of small treatment plants and large processing plants planned by the government became operational.

Samithi seeks time

Samithi representatives told the government that they needed five days to consider this proposal and to present it locally at Vilappil. Samithi representatives later told media persons that they would present the government's proposal to the people of Vilappil who would have the final word on the subject.

Briefing press persons on the talks, Mr. Kunhalikutty said the government viewed both sides of the problem—the suffering of the people of Vilappil and the garbage crisis faced by the capital city—with equal seriousness. The samithi representatives wanted an immediate and permanent closure of the garbage plant. The government's stand was that this was not possible and would only lead to a crisis in the capital city.

Over the last one month the culture of treating garbage at source had steadily caught on in the capital city. This would be continued. The police were also acting firmly against those who dump garbage by the wayside. The government believed that this alone would reduce by a great extent the quantity of garbage that needed to be taken away for treatment.

The government reportedly told the samithi that it would need a minimum of six months to have an alternative garbage treatment system up and running.

Package for Vilappil

The government and the City Corporation would work together to put in place a welfare package for the people of Vilappil. This would include drinking water schemes and health schemes, he said. The talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and the Samithi representatives appeared to have imbibed the issues as delineated by the government, he said.

Small plants

Mr. Kunhalikutty later toldThe Hinduthat the government had more than a dozen sites in mind for setting up garbage treatment plants. These were areas where there was very low density of population. “The government does not wish to reveal the exact location of these sites,” he said.

Apart from a string of small-scale treatment plants, the government also proposed to set up a large treatment plant somewhere between Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam. Even if there were plants, a large-capacity plant was unavoidable, he argued. Once all these plants were up and running there would actually be a shortage of garbage to be treated, he claimed.

Meantime, a team from the Suchitwa Mission left for Germany on Tuesday to study the ‘cold mineralisation' technology for treating garbage. The government would take a final call on the technology after studying the report submitted by the team.

Meanwhile, the LDF parliamentary party in the Corporation council decided to call off its agitation in front of the Chief Minister's residence. Party leader V.S. Padmakumar said here that this decision followed the government's resolve to resume operations at the Vilappil plant.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2830647.ece

Nod for Mysore model of waste management

2012-01-28T03:10:00.000-08:00

The Kerala Institute of Local Administration has formulated a project to popularise the Mysore model of waste management. KILA Director P.P. Balan and faculty members Sunny George and J.B. Rajan held talks with officials in Mysore in this connection in Mysore. The KILA team also visited the waste processing plant at Vidyaranyapuram. A team of District Panchayat Presidents and Vice-Presidents from Kerala will visit Mysore on February 4 and 5.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2827611.ece

Garbage crisis: LDF stir continues

2012-01-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Dharna held in front of Chandy's house

Deputy Mayor G. Happykumar led a protest march and dharna in front of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's residence here on Sunday in protest against the garbage disposal crisis in the city.

The dharna and march, taken out from Vazhuthacaud Sugathan Memorial Hall, were held as part of an indefinite stir of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) councillors in the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation against the State government, a statement released here said.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader Venjaramoodu Sasi inaugurated the dharna. Corporation standing committee chairpersons S. Pushpalatha, P. Shyamkumar, LDF council parliamentary party secretary V.S. Padmakumar, and councillors participated in the protest.

Tax and Appeal Committee chairperson P. Shyamkumar would lead the protest march and dharna in front of the Chief Minister's residence on Monday, the statement added.

The LDF is demanding that the State government urgently come up with an alternative solution to deal with the garbage crisis in the wake of the closure of the Vilappilsala solid-waste treatment plant by the Vilappil panchayat.

Its councillors allege that instead of coming up with technologies to solve the issues related to the Vilappilsala plant, the State government has abandoned the plant and the facilities there. Moreover, the government's response is mere firefighting and there is no coordinated effort to arrive at a sustainable solution to resolve the crisis.

The State government had taken exception to the Vilappil panchayat's action of closing the plant and a commission appointed by the Kerala High Court had submitted its report.

The proposal to dump garbage in pits dug on vacant revenue or Corporation plots as a temporary measure has also not worked out.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2824541.ece

Local bodies' apathy to audit hits governance

2012-01-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

by N.J. Nair

Poor compliance with audit recommendations and lack of effective follow-up initiatives to rectify the administrative lapses based on review reports are reported to affect the quality of governance and help the corrupt to escape unscathed. The latest report of the Local Fund Audit appraisal of local bodies has cited the apathy of the elected committees as well as officials of local self-government institutions in discussing the reports or adopting corrective measures to tone up the administration. Rules mandate audit of the accounts of local bodies by the month of April in every financial year. Majority of the local bodies fail to update the accounts in time and do not furnish it to the auditors within the prescribed time.

The annual income and expenditure statements submitted after the time limit are often found to be inconsistent and erroneous. The annual statements are being prepared without completing the entries in the cash book as well as income and expenditure registers. Such lapses have virtually made auditing of accounts virtually impossible, the report says.

Once the officials responsible for expending funds either get transferred or retire from service, their successors decline to act on the grounds that the expenditure in question has not been made during their tenure. The tendency to escape the onus and the diffidence are affecting the review process. Directions issued by the government to overcome such situations have not yet been implemented at the grassroots level.

The administrative committees comprising elected representatives tend to shy away from the responsibility of discussing the contents of the audit reports. The action taken reports are not being discussed at the grama and ward sabhas. Such steps have become impossible since majority of the local bodies do not organise grama sabhas and fabricate documents to show that such meetings have been held. There is no mechanism to reply to the queries raised by the auditors. As per the auditing rules, charge and surcharge notices should be issued to the officials responsible for incurring loss. Those wielding authority have been empowered to take legal action against those officials who refuse to respond to the notices. Most of the local bodies do not take follow-up action to realise the loss or take legal steps against the officials responsible for the lapses and the loss will not be recovered.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-index/?date=2012-01-22#kerala

Government discouraging Kudumbasree: AIDWA

2012-01-22T22:06:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) State committee has accused the government of attempting to derail the functioning of Kudumbasree by delaying the elections to societies.

Association president T.N. Seema and secretary K.K. Shylaja sad in a release here on Saturday that elections to the area development societies and community development societies were in a state of disarray in various places. The neighbourhood groups (NHGs) have been split to serve political interests.

The previous LDF government had given due support to the NHGs. There were complaints that the present government was not doing so. The association would stage marches to District Collectorates on January 27 to press for its demand.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2822325.ece

Kudumbasree Clean Well workers get a raw deal

2012-01-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

by Sangeetha Unnithan

Say the city Corporation has deserted them

Unpaid school fee, house rent, and loan repayments apart, Sheela (name changed), a mother of two, is bogged down by a host of other financial problems.

Rendered jobless for more than a month by the ongoing agitation against the solid-waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala, Ms. Sheela and her co-workers at the Jagathy Kudumbasree Clean Well unit were dealt another blow recently.

Mounting loan

A fortnight ago, the garbage collection auto of the unit went up in flames. Ms. Sheela has no clue how the vehicle was gutted or who was responsible. All she knows is that the loan on the vehicle needs to be repaid, and that the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation, which lent the vehicle, refuses to hand over the RC book needed to claim vehicle insurance.

“The Corporation gave us this vehicle to collect garbage on a loan of Rs.1.9 lakh a year ago. We have never failed to repay the monthly amount of Rs.4,000 in the past 11 months. The Corporation officials know very well that we have no income as waste collection in the city has come to a standstill. Yet, they expect us to pay the loan amount,” she said.

Full of ire

“Now, they are refusing to hand over the RC book of the vehicle since the loan repayment is pending. After doing the dirty job for them for the past six years, this is the way they treat us,” Ms. Sheela said.

Struggle all the way

Ms. Sheela's sentiment is echoed by the 800-odd Clean Well garbage collection workers in the city who believe the Corporation deserted them in their moment of crisis. With no livelihood, pension, or any other benefit, these women are struggling to make ends meet.

Kaveri (name changed), a member of the Valiyasala Clean Well unit, said the Corporation trapped them by thrusting on them a thankless job with no security, and then luring them to join a trade union.

Unkept promise

Apparently, Corporation Health standing committee chairperson S. Pushpalatha hinted at a job threat a month ahead of the Vilappilsala agitation, and asked the Clean Well workers to join a Left-leaning trade union in order to ‘protect their job.'

“An amount of Rs.25 was collected from each one of us, and we were also asked to give two passport-size photographs. However, no membership card or receipt was issued. Later, when the crisis hit us, they simply deserted us. Apart from conducting a convention around a month ago, they have not supported us in any way so far,” Ms. Kaveri said.

Membership fee

Ms. Pushpalatha admitted that a membership fee was collected from a majority of the Clean Well workers.

“But before we could bring them together, they left us and joined another organisation to attack the Corporation. It is not the Corporation that snatched away their jobs. Then, why should they protest against us,” she said.

Agitation

The Clean Well workers have now launched a stir against the Corporation under the Clean Well Thozhilali Samrakshana Vedi.

Interestingly, this organisation is led by a group which is part of the agitation against the Vilappilsala plant under the banner of the Vilappilsala Solidarity Forum.

‘Moral responsibility'

“We think it is our moral responsibility to support the Clean Well workers who lost their job because of the agitation at Vilappilsala. These women have been exploited by the Corporation. They have no benefits, pension, or health insurance. After dealing with garbage for so many years, many of them suffer from various diseases,” M. Shajerkhan, chairperson of the Vedi, said.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2822569.ece

LSGIs given nod to support the ailing

2012-01-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Local self-government institutions have been granted permission to give financial support to the projects of the Kerala Social Security Mission for the ailing, Social Welfare Minister M.K. Muneer said in a release here on Saturday.

District panchayats and Corporations have been permitted to give Rs.10 lakh each, block panchayats and municipalities Rs.5 lakh each and grama panchayats Rs.1 lakh each with the consent of the District Planning Committees.

The fund should be used for cancer care, renal ailments, coronary care, neurological ailments and cochlear implant.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2822320.ece

Proposal for garbage plant at Palode vetoed

2012-01-20T04:52:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

A team of Corporation and Suchitwa Mission officials visited a government site near Palode here on Thursday as part of conducting a feasibility study for setting up a temporary garbage-treatment facility there.

According to sources, setting up of a temporary plant to process waste using windrow-composting technique on the two-acre site was under consideration. However, the Corporation officials vetoed the proposal citing environmental and topographical reasons. “The site is located in an environmental and ecologically fragile area. Besides, it is a hilly terrain. In order to set up a temporary waste-treatment plant, we will have to start right from the basics, beginning with the construction of approach roads to the site,” an official said.

Precarious condition

Meanwhile, the garbage disposal crisis in the city has aggravated with the Vilappilsala plant remaining closed for over a month. Landfills in vacant revenue land, suggested as a temporary measure to deal with the crisis, have reached a saturation point. Burning of plastic waste along city roads has also emerged as a serious health issue where cases of communicable diseases like dengue and chikungunya have already been reported in the past one month.

The Corporation has approached the High Court seeking police protection to transport garbage from the city to the Vilappilsala plant which was closed down by Vilappil panchayat on December 21, 2011 following agitations against the plant by the residents.

Although the reports submitted by Kerala State Pollution Control Board and the advocate commission appointed by the High Court on the running of the plant have been critical of the Corporation, officials from the local body have maintained that the reports have not been unfavourable.

“We have taken the observations made in the reports in a positive light. The main point made in both the reports is that the volume of waste transported to the plant be brought down to 90 tonnes. The Corporation has already started working on this through its source-level waste treatment project. Even otherwise, the quantity of biodegradable waste reaching the plant is only around 100 tonnes,” said Deputy Mayor G. Happykumar.

“Another recommendation made in the reports is to complete the construction work of the leachate-treatment plant within two months, which we can do if the Vilappilsala plant is re-opened,” he said. Even as the garbage crisis continues in the city, various political factions in the Corporation council, including the ruling LDF, have launched agitation on the issue. On Thursday, the LDF organised a public meeting at Gandhi Park in the city to protest against the alleged lackadaisical attitude of the State government in the issue.The BJP has launched a relay hunger strike in front of the Corporation office to protest against the alleged inefficiency of the Corporation and the

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2816654.ece

KPCC urges government to clear confusion in Kudumbasree polls

2012-01-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday asked the State government to take steps to clear the confusion in the conduct of elections to the Kudumbasree Poverty Eradication Mission. Addressing a press conference here after the party's leadership meeting, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said the party had made such a demand in the light of serious complaints regarding the conduct of the elections. There had been instances of several orders being issued, including reservation for various categories, even after the election process got under way. Even though the KPCC president did not openly express it in his press conference, the meeting, which was attended by office-bearers of the KPCC and Congress legislature party, Ministers, presidents of DCCs and feeder organisations, and former KPCC presidents, came down heavily on the Indian Union Muslim League's Panchayat and Social Welfare Minister M.K. Muneer for taking decisions that gave the Communist Party of India (Marxist) a leverage in the Kudumbasree mission.

The Congress had always maintained that the CPI(M) had hijacked the mission by converting the government's unique poverty alleviation programme into a political tool. Speakers at the meeting pointed out that Dr. Muneer's decisions helped further the political interests of the CPI(M), rather than that of the United Democratic Front's. At several ‘ayalkootams', members did not have the right to vote, they pointed out. Similarly, there was no reservation in the elections to the ayalkootam societies but this was introduced in the last minute at the time of elections to the community development societies. They alleged that officials had been given a freehand in the conducted of the elections.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2813155.ece

New Plan methodology mooted for local bodies to overcome delay in getting projects cleared

2012-01-20T04:30:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Emulation of the State government's planning and project execution methodology has been mooted in civic bodies to overcome the District Planning Committees' delay in clearing their Plan projects. A workshop on evolving an alternative methodology for toning up the People's Plan Campaign movement held at the Centre for Development Studies here on Monday suggested that the DPC-level whetting of Plan projects be confined to a broad review of procedures and guidelines issued by the State government. This will help the local self-government institutions save nearly two to three months in their annual Plan formulation and end bunching of implementation in the last quarter of the year.

On getting the DPC nod, local self-government institutions should instantly start implementing the simple projects and the complex ones may be put off till getting the technical sanction. An alternative mechanism, assigning officers for the purpose, should be evolved to grant technical sanction. Since the last quarter of the year is less crowded, local bodies can try and complete Plan formulation stages for the forthcoming year by March 31 itself. This can be done before the DPC approval, if it is delayed.

The Technical Advisory Groups can play a lead role in formulating the district Plan. The Technical Advisory Groups are a participatory space for experts who volunteer to offer their services.

Funds utilisation

The proportion of Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan funds devolved to the local bodies appeared to be on the higher side. Government departments cannot shirk the responsibility of making effective use of the funds. Structural barriers exist in making viable projects. The funds should not be allowed to lapse. It should be taken back for spending under the same heads in the departments concerned. The practice of penalising and effecting compensatory cuts for the shortfall in expending the funds from the general funds should be stopped.

A surfeit of government orders, infringing on the functioning of the civic bodies was found to be a major hassle. Government orders are not the best of vehicles of capacity development. Capacity building and pedagogy should be separated. Long-term perspectives and five-year Plans have been mooted for civic bodies. The approach should not be too ambitious.

‘Janakeeya durbars'

Public participation in grama sabhas should be enhanced. In order to augment the participatory space, local bodies may be encouraged to convene monthly ‘Janakeeya durbars' on a fixed date when the members and officials will be present to hear public suggestions and redress complaints. There should be an overhauling of the process of data collection and storage on local-level planning. Forms should be made more simpler, it was felt. Associate Professor K.N. Harilial presented the suggestions. Planning Board member C.P. John, economist M.A. Oommen, Prof. K.P. Kannan, and former Planning Board member Mridul Eapen were among those who spoke.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2813206.ece

Vilappilsala case: hearing adjourned to January 23

2012-01-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday adjourned to January 23, the hearing on a writ petition filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation seeking police protection for resuming the operation of its treatment plant at Vilappilsala.

When the petition was taken up for hearing, Advocate Commissioner appointed by the Bench to inspect the solid waste treatment plant at Vilappillsala submitted that waste treatment plant was still under construction and no facility had been provided to separate the biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes at the plant.

The Commissioner did not file her report on Tuesday though she submitted before the court that she would file it on Tuesday itself. The Environment Engineer, State Pollution Control Board, was also yet to file a report. The court had also directed the Environment Engineer to inspect and report whether any air pollution or water pollution was caused.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2810116.ece

Kottayam Municipality for alternative site

2012-01-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

KOTTAYAM: After failing to meet the deadline set by the Kerala High Court to clear the pile up of garbage at the Vadavathoor dumping yard, Kottayam Municipality on Monday said it was still trying to find a location where the garbage could be used as landfill. The High Court had given three months’ time to the municipality to clear the garbage that had piled up for several months, before January 15 to facilitate Ramki group to effectively operate its treatment plant at Vadavathoor. The lack of support from political parties is the main reason for the local body failing to find a suitable location, municipal chairman Sunny Kalloor said. The municipality had made an attempt to remove the waste to the land owned by the municipality at Kodimatha. But the move was opposed by politicians who also instigated the locals against dumping of waste there.
“Unless all sections of society extend their support, it will be difficult to solve the issue,” Kalloor said. The municipality has informed the court about the situation. “We are making all attempts to find an alternative site. Once we remove the piled up garbage, the problem will be solved,” he said. The municipality has some plans to solve the issue which will be revealed at the right time, he said. The Ramki group is already engaged in the construction of the leach plant which will solve the environmental problems at Vadavathoor, he said. Meanwhile, Vijayapuram panchayat authorities said they were against the functioning of the yard in the panchayat area.
The panchayat is in the process of moving the court on the issue, its president Jeeva kumar said. The garbage had piled up at Vadavathoor as the functioning of the plant was halted for months owing to differences of opinion between the operator and the local body
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kottayam-municipality-for-alternative-site/221645-60-116.html

NRIs can vote online in civic elections

2012-01-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvanthapuram

The Ministry for Panchayati Raj has asked state election commissions to put the online voting system in place enabling citizens to vote from anywhere in the world.
The move comes at a time when the Election Commission of India, which conducts national elections, is studying the demand from non-resident Indians to install a foolproof biometric identification system for them and facilitate online voting.
Reports from New Delhi said the ministry, which is in charge of the country’s three-tier local self-governments system, asked the regional authorities to make the facility available.
The state governments have accepted the proposal and the system will be in place as and when elections to the urban bodies are held.
The pilot project in Gandhinagar in Gujarat, proved successful, The Hindu daily said.
Voters who have registered online and got a separate ID with a password will be allowed to vote. They will be recognised by their mobile phone numbers and they will be informed of their time of voting by SMS.
Each voter will be allotted two minutes to cast the vote after the ballot paper pops up on the screen for the ward where the voter is enrolled, the paper said.
The time limit is set to avoid a mass attempt by electors casting their votes at the same time, which could jam the portal.
Though the NRIs were allowed to enroll from abroad last year and vote if physically present in their constituencies at the time of ballot, only 8,820 expatriates have enrolled due to strict conditions and among them only 4,639 could cast their vote in the March-April assembly elections in Kerala.
Expatriates say the decision to amend the Representation of People Act 1950 to enfranchise them was an ‘insincere and halfhearted’ move knowing well that they would not be able to vote under the present conditions and they were demanding facilities for secure online voting from the comforts of their homes wherever they are.
There are 2.28mn people from Kerala working abroad, mostly in the Gulf countries, and they constitute more than 10% of the state’s total eligible voters. Their vote could tilt the balance in many northern constituencies of the state.

Source:http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=480992&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22

Panchayat says no to quarrying

2012-01-15T23:25:00.000-08:00

by K.S. Sudhi

The Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) of Kadanad village panchayat of Kottayam, became the first BMC in the State to initiate action to protect the biodiversity by invoking the Biological Diversity Act 2002.

The BMC has directed the village panchayat authorities not to allow granite quarrying and a crusher unit at Perunkunnu Mala, a 2000-ft hill, as it feared that the operations would undermine the environmental balance and even climate of at least five panchayats in the area.

The committee has also approached the Kerala State Biodiversity Board and sought its support for carrying out environmental impact studies in the area.

A private agency has acquired vast tracks of the hilly terrain for granite quarrying and operating a crusher unit, which would be highly detrimental to the biodiversity of the area, said Jose Mathew Puthettu, convener of the BMC.

A special grama sabha held earlier had also rejected the proposals with overwhelming majority, he said.

In a letter to the KSBB, the Kadanad BMC pointed out that the granite quarrying would affect the flora and fauna of a few panchayats besides causing environmental hazards.

Biodiversity registry

The panchayat had earlier formed a People's Biodiversity Registry of the area which listed the flora and fauna and traditional knowledge.

R.V. Varma, chairman of the KSBB, said that it was for the first time that a BMC has come forward for protecting the biodiversity of the area. Kerala had earlier won the distinction of becoming the first State in the country to have BMCs formed in all its 978 village panchayats.

V.S. Vijayan, the former chairman of the Kerala Board, said that the decision of the BMC was a turning point in terms of conservation of biodiversity.

The decision for protecting the biodiversity taken at the bottom-level authority should be emulated by other BMCs too, he said.

Provisions of the Act

The Section 41 of the Act states that “every local body shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee within its area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and micro organisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity.”

The Act further states that the National Biodiversity Authority and the State Biodiversity Board shall consult the BMC “while taking any decision relating to the use of biological resources and knowledge associated with such resources occurring within the territorial jurisdiction of the Biodiversity Management Committee.” The BMC can also “levy charges by way of collection fees from any person for accessing or collecting any biological resources for commercial purposes from areas falling within its territorial jurisdiction.”

Thresyama Thomas, the president of the Kadanad village panchayat, said that the civic body was opposed to the quarrying activities as the majority of the people of the area was against it. Earlier, the village panchayat had cleared the request for the mining activities as there was no opposition to it. However, the public sentiment is now against the unit, she said.

The village committee has received a communication from the BMC suggesting that permission should not be given to the industrial unit, Ms. Thomas said.

Considering the request of the BMC, the KSBB will soon form an expert committee to study the environmental impact assessment of the proposed activities. The expert team will soon visit the area to take stock of the situation, Mr. Varma said.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2794954.ece

Meet highlights urgent need to tackle garbage menace

2012-01-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

S. Gopinath, Inspector General of Police (Thrissur Range), addressing an awareness programme on waste management.— Photo: K.K. Najeeb

A comprehensive solution has eluded the policy makers despite the city generating an appalling increase in waste, an awareness programme on waste management observed.

Addressing the function, S. Gopinath, Inspector General of Police (Thrissur Range), said poor civic sense was the major reason for the situation. “Those who keep their home spic and span never mind throwing garbage at every street corner. Our sense of cleanliness ends at the entrance to the road,” he said. Operation Sweep, the ambitious project of the Kerala Police to turn public places litter-free, would not be a success without the community participation, he said. The police would take stringent action against those who dispose of garbage in public places.

The police have launched ‘Operation Sweep' following a judgement by the High Court (WP (c) No. 27052/11) against throwing solid waste in public places. Those who pollute environment with plastic would be booked under Sections 268 read with sections 269 and 278 of the Indian Penal Code and 120 (e) of the Kerala Police Act. Management of solid waste was a great challenge in urban areas in the midst of fast-paced development, said C. S. Sreenivasan, Standing Committee Chairman (Health) of Thrissur Corporation. Only a decentralised system of waste management with effective ban on plastic carry bags could significantly reduce the problem, he said. The city corporations initiative to ban plastic was well-received by the public. It showed that the public was keen to tackle the menace, he said.

Mr. Sreenivasan said the Corporation was confident the situation would improve once the decentralised waste management project started functioning. “The civic body is working towards streamlining the waste collection and source segregation process. The accumulated garbage at Lalur dumpyard will be removed soon. We plan to use the garbage removed from Lalur for land-filling at abandoned quarries.”

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2794951.ece

Protest against dumping of debris at resettlement site

2012-01-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

The move to dump mud from the piling points for North overbridge at the rehabilitation site for evictees from Moolamppilly has invited protests from the coordination committee for those displaced by development projects.

The committee called for the removal of mud from the site immediately and for disciplinary action against officials responsible.

Families were displaced from Moolamppilly, Kothad, Cheranalloor and Eloor for the International Container Transshipment Terminal. The debris from the demolished side-bays were first dumped at the four acres identified at Thuthiyoor, Vazhakkala for rehabilitating 103 families and the committee had lodged a complaint against this.

However, the authorities dumped 15 truck loads of sludge at the same site on Thursday night, the committee alleged.

The State government was yet to provide the infrastructure for rehabilitation of displaced families, even though the UDF government has included the Moolamppilly rehabilitation package in its 100-day programme. Hence, the move to dump debris and mud at rehabilitation site amounted to scuttling the process itself, said a joint press release by Francis Kalathunkal, general convenor of the committee, and C.R. Neelakantan, chairman of Samara Sahaya Samiti.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2800554.ece

German technology for waste treatment, says Minister

2012-01-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Addressing concerns:Rural Development Minister K.C. Joseph holding a meeting of people's representatives and party leaders in Kannur on Saturday to discuss the issue of waste disposal in Kannur municipality following an agitation by local residents against the landfill at Chelora.

Minister for Rural Development K.C. Joseph has said that the State government plans to adopt a waste-treatment system based on German technology for civic bodies in the State.

He was speaking at a meeting of political party representatives here on Saturday to discuss the agitation launched by the people of Chelora against the Kannur municipality's waste dump there.

Mr. Joseph said that of the three garbage treatment systems that had been proposed for solving the burning issue of waste disposal faced by various civic bodies in the wake of local protests against garbage dumping yards, the German technology-based system was found suitable.

He said that though the government had examined various other systems of waste treatment, the one using the German technology was found useful and appropriate for the situation in the State.

The meeting of political party leaders and representatives of the action council spearheading the agitation against the dump at Chelora was convened to discuss the issue and end the agitation. The action committee, however, abstained from the meeting.

The agitation against the dumping yard, which started on December 26 last, has brought waste disposal in the municipality to a standstill.

The agitation began as a protest against the municipality's delay in implementing a water supply scheme for the people living near the dump.

Municipal authorities alleged that the action committee leaders were abstaining from talks convened for resolving the issue.

Time sought

Mr. Joseph said the government required six months for finding a lasting solution to the garbage disposal issue not only in Kannur but also in other parts of the State. He urged the protesting local people at Chelora to cooperate with the municipality to end the agitation.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2803128.ece

A Council Meeting of Thrissur Municipal Corporation on 12th Jan 2012

2012-01-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

Source : http://www.mathrubhumi.com/thrissur/news/1390548-local_news-thrissur.html

Sinking litter by litter, Kerala struggles for relief

2012-01-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

by Mini Muringatheri

The State's idea of waste management all these years has had to do with identification of a spot some distance away from urban centres and dumping of all the garbage there.

All these places have now become flashpoints of struggle by people in their neighbourhood who are no longer ready to bear the burden of waste generated by urban agglomerations.

No easy answers

Similar situation

Horror

Population growth

Biogas

German technology proposed for new Brahmapuram waste treatment plant

2012-01-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

by G. Krishnakumar

Ecocycling' process turns trash into non-waste material

The Suchitwa Mission has recommended setting up at Brahmapuram a mega plant capable of processing about 500 tonnes of municipal solid waste generated daily in Kochi corporation areas and nearby municipalities.

Experts associated with the mission told The Hindu on Monday that the plant will work on a German technology known as ‘ecocycling'.

Ecocycling is a cold mineralisation process where waste is torn apart and molecules are encapsulated in the resultant silicate structure. The waste is transformed into a mineral called C.M500, a non-toxic product suitable for various applications in the construction and agriculture sectors. Household waste, including plastic, is put through a huge shredder and reduced to small pieces about 10 cm in size. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals are separated before the waste goes through a grinder to reduce it even further, they said.

The ecocycle process grinds trash down into tiny particles, mixes it with hazardous waste, locks it all together with an additive and pumps it out as very fine pellets of non-waste material. Household waste, toxic waste and industrial waste could be turned in to clean and reusable materials using this technology.

Officials at the Mission said that the price of an ecocycle plant is nearly 90 per cent cheaper than an incinerator. It needs around one-tenth the temperature of incineration. The proposed technology ensures that there is no foul smell emanating from the plant besides checking the leakage of leachate (the liquid that drains from the waste heaps).

The Mission has prepared a list of technology providers who could offer scientific solutions to the garbage menace in the State. The new Brahmapuram plant is among the three regional solid waste treatment plants proposed to be built shortly using a new technology. The other two plants were proposed to be built in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. About 10 acres would be set apart for establishing the plant at Brahmapuram.

Officials said that 15 acres would be earmarked for creating a green belt and other facilities.

The government will implement these projects in public-private partnership. Experts said a large plant was essential for Kochi, where de-centralised initiatives had failed to materialise.

They said the Brahmapuram plant would become a solution for treatment of waste generated in the municipalities in Ernakulam.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2771062.ece

Garbage issue in Kannur takes a new turn

2012-01-11T00:34:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

As the issue of disrupted waste collection and disposal of the Kannur municipality following the agitation by local residents against the municipality’s waste dump in the nearby Chelora panchayat continues without any solution in sight, the municipality’s alleged attempt to send its garbage vehicles in the early hours of Tuesday sparked off protest after a local action committee functionary was injured allegedly when the vehicle tried to enter the waste yard in defiance of the protest outside.

K.K. Madhu (51), a functionary of the action committee launching the agitation against the dump, has been admitted to the AKG Hospital here with injuries in his hand. The police said that he suffered injuries when he fell off the chairs he was sleeping on when he woke up in a hurry after hearing the sound of the garbage vehicle trying to enter the dump at around 5 a.m. The action committee alleged that the municipality’s action of sending the garbage vehicle at odd hours when the protest by the residents against waste dumping in the area was going on showed the municipal authorities’ insensitivity to the agitation. It alleged that the incident was part of an attempt to intimidate the protestors. The driver and others inside the vehicle fled when the local people started rushing to the spot, action committee leaders said.

The agitation that entered 16th day on Tuesday brought the municipality’s garbage collection and disposal activities to a complete standstill. The municipal authorities said that the piling up of waste in different parts of the town was a major health hazard. No possible solution was conceived as of now as the protestors were refusing to attend the talks convened to discuss proposals for solving the grievances of the residents at Chelora. The municipal authorities also alleged that the district administration was maintaining a passive attitude to the serious issue of disruption of garbage disposal, while the police was supporting the agitators.

T.O. Mohanan, chairman of the municipal standing committee (welfare), said that during earlier agitations by the local residents, talks had been held at different levels to sort out the problem. This time the action committee refused to attend the talks convened even by the Collector, he said adding that the district administration and the police were not co-operating with the municipal authorities to address the serious problem. He said that the waste in the town was not necessarily generated by people living in the municipal area alone.

The municipality, for example, had collected huge food waste from food packets distributed to nearly 20,000 people from different parts of the district who attended the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme on January 5.

According to the municipal officials, though the agitation started in protest against the delay in implementing a water supply scheme for 126 families living near the dump, the action committee was not speaking about the water supply problem after the municipality decided to speedily implement another Rs. 30 lakh water supply scheme for the area at a time when the municipality was struggling with paucity of funds. The amount of Rs. 19 lakh already transferred to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for the earlier scheme that did not materialise because of objections from the neighbouring Mundery panchayat would be added to additional Rs. 11 lakh to be released by the municipality to complete the new project.

The officials said that unlike the landfills of other municipalities elsewhere in the State, the dump at Chelora has been well maintained as per the demands of the local residents. A compound wall has been constructed and plastic waste has been totally barred from dumping at the yard. The municipality the other day transported 42,000 kg of plastic waste, collected over a period of six moths, for recycling, they disclosed.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2790432.ece

Kerala: Villagers protest over stinking garbage plant

2012-01-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

Thiruvananthapuram: Villagers near the Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant located in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram protest as the stink from the plant has made life difficult for neighbouring villages.

Locals were not allowing the entry of garbage trucks from Thiruvananthapuram into the village. Villagers have also sat on a relay hunger strike demanding that the plant be shifted. They have also said that the stench and pollution is killing them.

In fact, the Vilappilsala Panchayat had earlier forced the closure of the plant. The Kerala High Court has now asked a commission to look into the matter.

"Till now we managed to dispose waste by using few vacant government plots within the city. That has reached its saturation point," said Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor Chandrika.

While the Kerala government is groping in the dark over the crisis, some residents in the city are showing the way. They have started turning bio degradable waste into compost, which is then sold.

"Here we get six months of rain. The waste we produce cannot be combusted easily, but can be composted - the degradable part only. Non degradable like plastic - we have to reduce reuse or recycle," said Community Health Professor Vijayakumar.

Political rivalry and social indifference have worsened the waste management crisis in Kerala in the past few years. The result is protests in every other district in the state. Experts reiterate the old saying while talking about a possible solution - that change should start from home.

Source : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kerala-villagers-protest-as-garbage-plant-stinks/219756-3.html

Court orders inspection of plant site

2012-01-10T23:03:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday ordered a joint inspection by a court-appointed Advocate Commissioner and the Environmental Engineer, State Pollution Control Board, at the solid waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram on at 11 a.m. on January 14.

The Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon, appointed High Court lawyer K. Meera as Advocate Commissioner to inspect the plant and report about the situation at the plant.

Though the counsel for the Corporation made a fervent plea for granting police protection for dumping the garbage collected by the Corporation at the plant, the Bench orally made it clear that it would take a call on the issue only after getting reports from the Advocate Commissioner and the Engineer.

The court asked the Commissioner to report whether garbage was properly disposed of at the plant; whether construction of a compound wall was being carried out or whether any expansion or extension of the plant was being undertaken and if there was any construction, the report should state the present stage of the construction. The Environmental Engineer was directed to state whether any air pollution or water pollution was caused due to the dumping of the garbage on the plant premises. The Engineer was also asked to state the distance between the plant premises to the nearby river, besides the capacity of the plant to treat wastes.

The court also directed the State government to provide protection to the Advocate Commissioner as well as the Engineer for conducting the joint inspection. The Bench also ordered protection to the officials of the Corporation visiting the plant at the time of the inspection.

The court noted that while the Corporation submitted that steps had been taken to rectify the deficiencies pointed out by the State Pollution Control Board, the panchayat countered it saying that the Corporation had not taken any action to remedy the situation. The court said that it could not appreciate the real position unless an Advocate Commissioner was appointed for inspecting the plant and assessing the situation.

The court issued the directives when a petition filed by the Corporation seeking police protection for operating the treatment plant came up for hearing. According to the petitioner, panchayat president Shobhana Kumari had locked the main gate of the plant, leading to the suspension of the garbage removal and working of the plant. The officials and workers of the Corporation could not go anywhere near the plant as they were prevented by the panchayat president and others. The ongoing works at the plant had come to a standstill. The solid waste had started accumulated in the city since December 21.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2789275.ece

Kudumbasree services sought

2012-01-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

MoUs with 7 States to be inked soon

Seven States, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan, have come forward to avail themselves of the services of the State Kudumbasree Mission in helping them replicate and establish the Micro Enterprise Consultant (MEC) model. The MoUs for the project would be inked soon.

This was decided at the valedictory function of the orientation workshop for Community-based Resources for Enterprise Support and Training, organised here by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and Kudumbasree on Saturday.

The workshop was designed to orient and inform States on Kudumbasree's MEC model and to discuss plans and modalities for rolling out CREST.

Chhatisgarh has informed that it would give a final word on replicating the model after discussions at the State level.

The MEC model of Kudumbasree has been recognised at the national level by ‘Ajeevika', earlier known as National Rural Livelihood Mission. The Ajeevika programme of the Centre envisages the creation of one crore entrepreneurs in seven years.

The MEC model comprises a cadre of community professionals trained to support entrepreneurship by identifying, selecting and supporting enterprises.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2786822.ece

Local bodies to report on mental health care homes

2012-01-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

The government is planning to ask panchayats, municipalities, and corporations to report on the care homes running in their territories.

The Health Department has asked the Local Self-government Department to instruct all local bodies to collect information about the authorised and unauthorised mental health care homes in their localities. This is as per the request of the Kerala State Mental Health Authority, which is tasked with regulating mental health facilities in the State. The authority has also provided a format for the local bodies to fill in the details.

The Kerala High Court on Thursday asked the government to file an affidavit by January giving details of the mental health care facilities in the State. The court had also commented that the mental health authority did not seem to be working properly.

However, the authority had sought information from the local bodies much before Thursday's court directive.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2782540.ece

Reopen garbage plant: Lokayukta

2012-01-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Directive to Vilappil grama panchayat to allow waste disposal

The Kerala Lokayukta, on Friday, directed the Vilappil grama panchayat to reopen the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant and allow entry of garbage vehicles into the plant until an alternative arrangement for garbage disposal is made in the city.

The order was issued on the basis of a complaint filed by two city-based lawyers Yesudasan Varghese and Anayara G. Rajendran against the closure of the waste treatment plant.

Lokayukta M.M. Pareed Pillay and Upa Lokayukta G. Sasidharan said in the order that the abrupt closure of the garbage treatment plant was causing health hazards and posing the threat of outbreak of diseases in the city.

“Admittedly, the garbage treatment plant was functioning at Vilappilsala for the last 11 years. Abruptly, a decision was taken by the first respondent panchayat for stopping the functioning of the garbage treatment plant at Vilappilsala. We are told that the government and the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation are trying to find out a suitable place for installing the garbage treatment plant and that will materialise shortly,” the order said. “In the light of the above facts, it is highly necessary that the garbage treatment plant at Vilappilsala has to function till an alternative arrangement is made for the disposal of garbage,” the order said.

Responding to the development, Vilappil panchayat president Shobhana Kumari said the Lokayukta's order to reopen the plant was unfortunate.

“The Lokayukta has issued this order without considering the sentiments of the people of Vilappilsala and the issues they face because of the functioning of this plant. The complainants have misled the judges by making wrong accusations against us. We have filed a review petition on the order,” Ms. Shobhana Kumari said.

The Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant was closed down by the Vilappil panchayat on December 21 following a mass agitation against the plant. Since then, the municipal garbage collection and disposal system in the city has been at a standstill.

A case on the closure of the plant is also pending in the High Court.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/article2782938.ece

Training for panchayat leaders from J&K

2012-01-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

The photo included in this post is from City Journal

The Kerala Institute of Local Administration will conduct a training programme on democratic decentralisation for local body leaders from Jammu & Kashmir. Minister for Gram Panchayats M.K. Muneer would inaugurate the first phase of the training programme at KILA on Sunday. In all, 90 master trainers would be trained in KILA, said KILA director P.P. Balan. “The war-ravaged valley is trying to introduce the Kerala-model of decentralisation. More than 41,000 elected representatives in Jammu & Kashmir have not undergone any formal training in local administration,” Mr. Balan said.

Three faculty members of the KILA would attend a workshop in Jammu for preparing modules and handbooks for the training.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2782178.ece

Vilappilsala: HC notice to Government, Panchayat

2012-01-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

by Express News Service, The New Indian Express

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the State Government and the Vilappil Panchayat president on a petition filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation seeking police protection to resume the functioning of the Solid Waste Treatment Plant at Vilappilsala.

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P R Ramachandra Menon issued the notices when the petition filed by Corporation Secretary T Bhaskaran came up for hearing. The court also issued notice to the Samara Samithi representatives.

Counsel for the Corporation Advocate N Nandhkumara Menon submitted that the people in the city were bearing the brunt of the developments, with waste disposal not happening for more than one week.

According to the petitioner, the Vilappil panchayat had no right to confiscate property and machinery that belonged to the Corporation.

“The law and order system has been disturbed under the leadership of the panchayat president, secretary and the Samara Samithi representatives. On December 21, a joint conference was held with the representatives of the panchayat and others. The attitude of the agitators and panchayat representatives has been very defiant. Instead of resolving the crisis, they took the law into their hands and have instigated the people of Vilappil against the Corporation,” the petition pointed out.

The plant, the property on which it is built, and all the machinery belong to the Corporation. Vilappil panchayat president Shobhana Kumari has locked the main gate of the plant without any statutory authority. At present, officials and workers are not allowed to go anywhere near the plant. The other works in progress in the plant also have come to a standstill, the petitioner said.

“The solid waste accumulated in the city since December 21 has reached an alarming stage. The vehicles of the Corporation carrying garbage are obstructed by miscreants with the full support of the panchayat. If the present situation continues, storing and treating the solid waste accumulated in the city would continue, which could lead to the outbreak of epidemics and other contagious diseases,” the petitioner said.

The Corporation had already requested the DGP to provide police protection for the smooth functioning of the plant. But there was no positive steps from the official, the petitioner alleged.

The Court adjourned the hearing of the case to January 9.

Source : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/vilappilsala-hc-notice-to-government-panchayat/217675-60-123.html

Plea for police protection to run garbage treatment plant

2012-01-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

by PTI | 06:01 PM,Jan 03,2012

Kochi, Jan 3 (PTI): Kerala High Court today admitted a writ petition seeking police protection to run the Vilappilsala garbage treatment plant at Thiruvananthapuram. Admitting the petition by Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, complaining of threat from Vilappilsala Panchayat authorities, a division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice, Manjula Chelloor and Justice P R Ramachandra Menon issued notices to the Panchayat and police through a special messenger. Earlier the panchayat had closed the unit forcefully. According to Corporation, this act of panchayat amounts to taking law into hands. The case will be heard on January 9. There has been a stand off between Thiruvananthapuram city corporation and the village panchyat on the outskirts,where the waste processing plant is located, with locals there demanding that it be re-located as its presence was causing serious health problems in the area. Though Chief Minister Oommen Chandy held talks with the panchayat and corporation authorities in December last, no solution could be found to the issue.

Source : http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/plea-for-police-protection-to-run-garbage-treatment-plant/945582.html

Men who power construction sector (An Informal Manpower Bank)

2012-01-02T01:22:00.000-08:00

by Radhakrishnan Kuttoor
Pathanamthitta, known for its large number of emigrant population, has become a major hub of migrant labour.
The district has turned out to be a major job market for workers mostly from Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal. Certain parts of Thiruvalla, Kozhencherry, and Mallappally taluks have a high concentration of migrant labour. A majority of them are employed by the construction sector, and it will not be an exaggeration to say that they are the mainstay of the sector in this part of the State, Sunil Thottumkal, a builder in Thiruvalla, says.

The workers live in groups in villages and their number is estimated to have crossed 25,000. A shortage of local hands makes people employ migrant workers even in small farm lands.

Paipad near Thiruvalla is a major camp of the migrant workforce from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. The village square wears a festive look as these workers gather in their hundreds every morning. Contractors come to the Paipad junction in the mornings to collect as many as workers they get.

Thekkemala near Kozhencherry had a strong concentration of migrant workers from Tamil Nadu till 2009. However, a majority of them have returned to their home State following a spurt in employment generation and a reasonable increase in daily wages in the construction sector there in the post-tsunami period.

Learning Hindi

Paipad's proximity to the Thiruvalla railway station may be a reason for the large concentration of migrant workforce there. Traders and shopkeepers have learned to speak Hindi, which is heard more frequently than Malayalam at the Paipad market in the mornings and evenings. Main agents (“Gurujis”) and their sub-agents supply workers to contractors and they, in turn, get Rs.50 as commission from each worker. The “Gurujis” brings workers from the north-east and the sub-agents supply them to local households and contractors.

“Guruji” keeps the money they earn and they take it to their home village every six months, say Pony and Ratan, two construction workers from a village on the outskirts of Kolkata.

“Here, the climate, working atmosphere and people are good, not to speak of the high wage structure,” 45-year-old Rajaram Chaudhary from Bihar says.

Neither the Labour Department nor the police have made an attempt to collect the personal records of the migrant workforce from a security perspective. Many contractors believe that a good number of these workers have given them fake addresses and names to protect their identity. There are reports that many are of Bangladeshi origin.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2759986.ece

Garbage crisis continues

2011-12-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Deadlock due to people's agitation against Vilappilsala plant
Residents oppose waste dumping in vacant plots
Councillors hopeful of reopening Vilappilsala plant

Ten days after the shutting down of the solid waste treatment plant at Vilappilsala, there is no end in sight to the garbage woes of the city.

The City Corporation and the State government had not been able to resolve the deadlock caused by the people's agitation against the treatment plant. The State government had taken exception to the Vilappil panchayat's action of locking up the garbage treatment plant and referred the case to the Ombudsman for Local-self Government Institutions.

The proposal to dump garbage in pits dug on vacant Revenue or Corporation plots as a temporary measure had also not worked out following public opposition. The Corporation had identified 22 such sites in the city and had directed councillors to identify vacant or unused land in their respective wards as an ad hoc arrangement. Councillors said residents were against such measures.

Incidents of local people blocking Corporation teams from dumping garbage in pits on vacant plots had been reported from places like Kudappanakunnu, Attakulangara bypass, Nemom, Pappanamcode, and Poojappura.

Poojappura ward councillor K. Maheshwaran Nair said apart from opposing dumping of garbage on vacant grounds, in most places, people were also against setting up decentralised garbage treatment facilities in their locality.

“There is concern among the public over construction of any sort of waste treatment plants in their locality. They fear pollution and mismanagement, as in the case of the Vilappilsala plant. I have identified five sites in my ward where decentralised biogas plants can be set up. But I cannot reveal where these sites are for fear of public opposition,” Mr. Nair said.

Dumping of wastes by the wayside by certain sections had been a major concern at Poojappura. “As far as household waste is concerned, most households and apartments in my ward have taken to source-level garbage treatment. Yet, there are people who do not have the space for that. Disposing of waste collected from these places will remain a challenge in the coming days if this crisis is not resolved immediately,” Mr. Nair said.

Pettah ward councillor B. Shruthi and Attukal councillor C. Jayan also said the garbage crisis had prompted many city residents to come up with source-level waste treatment solutions. Mr. Jayan said many residents in his ward had expressed willingness to install ring composts and biogas plants in their houses under the Corporation's source-level waste treatment project.

“The installation of these plants will take time. Unless the Vilappilsala plant is reopened, managing garbage will definitely be a problem at least for another three months,” Mr. Jayan said.

Although the Kudumbasree Clean Well Unit workers had started garbage collection in his ward on Thursday, disposing of the collected garbage was a major challenge, he said. “Since there is no vacant space in my ward we took the collected garbage to a vacant land in Kalipamkulam ward, where people stopped us. Finally we found some space elsewhere where we managed to dump the waste today. But tomorrow there will be a problem again,” he said. Palkulangara councillor P. Ashok Kumar said the Corporation's proposal to engage Kudumbasree workers to dig up pits in houses for dumping garbage was impractical. “It is impossible for Kudumbasree workers, most of whom are aged women, to go to each house and dig pits. The Corporation has thoroughly failed in dealing with this crisis,” he said.

Corporation health standing committee chairperson S. Pushpalatha said garbage was being collected and disposed of in many wards. “Although there have been incidents of public protest in some places, Kudumbasree Clean Well workers are collecting and disposing of garbage in many places. We hope that the Vilappilsala plant will be reopened soon. But until then we will have to carry on with this temporary arrangement,” she said.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2760018.ece

Asset maintenance commission mooted

2011-12-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

The State government should take the lead in setting up a commission for the proper upkeep of the permanent assets created using Plan funds in local self-government institutions, State Planning Board member C.P. John has said.

Participating in a discussion on a paper ‘The Fourth State Finance Commission Report of Kerala: Some new directions' prepared by D. Narayana of the Centre for Development Studies here on Thursday, Mr. John said that a permanent mechanism was needed for conserving the assets. The deprivation index set by the commission for allocating funds was well-defined. Similarly, the listing out 300 fiscally weak grama panchayats was a laudable effort, he said.

Mr. Narayana said the State Finance Commission reports deserved a better treatment and should trigger healthy discussions. Referring to some of the recommendations, he said the proposal to give maintenance fund on assets would only help the rich panchayats. The recommendation to allocate resources on the basis of a deprivation index could lead to perverse results. Incentivising the tax effort of local bodies would lead to rewarding the laggards and, in effect, help the larger panchayats.

Commission chairman M.A. Oommen said the role of the commission had not been properly evaluated so far. Fiscal federalism was the perspective of the report. Maintenance fund was needed for the entire system. Local bodies did not have an asset register. The State government should step in and support the effort to prepare the registers. The commission had ranked the 978 panchayats for awarding the fiscal equalisation grant.

Dr. Oommen also cited the chinks in the database of civic bodies and said that the data furnished to commission were unreliable. He urged Mr. John to persuade the government to accept the second report which complemented the first one which had been accepted by the previous government.

Former Planning Board member K.N. Harilal stressed the need for having a reliable and precise database. There should be a continued effort to improve the database, he said.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2636337.ece

EMS Housing Scheme to be continued till March next year

2011-12-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

by Roy Mathew

Minister for Panchayat and Social Welfare M. K. Muneer said in the Assembly on Thursday that the government proposed to continue the EMS Housing Scheme started by the previous government.

Replying to the debate on the demands for grants for Panchayat, Social Security and Welfare, the Minister said that implementation of the Scheme was not very effective. Only 10, 000 of the one lakh applicants without land could be provided with houses. Money was also misused for building second storeys to buildings. However, the scheme would be continued till the extended time limit (March 2012).

Mr. Muneer said that orders had already been issued raising the honorarium of mayors, chairmen of municipalities, panchayat presidents and other office bearers by Rs. 1000 a month. This was an announcement made in the Revised Budget for the current year.

He denied that there was any move to reconstitute community development societies (CDS) under the Kudumbasree Project through nominations. Election to the CDS would be held in January next year.

He said that the agency COSTFORD would be under scan in view of the allegations about the housing schemes implemented by them. The government had ordered a performance audit and a CBI enquiry was on.

The Minister announced that the government proposed to set up model aganwadis in places where land was available. They would also serve as resource centre for girls and day care centre for the aged. ISO certification would be sought for them. There were also plans to set up gender parks with cultural centre for women.

He said that the government had changed rules to enable totally blind persons to obtain employment in Education Department and Medical Colleges besides the State Electricity Board and Kerala Water Authority. Steps had been taken to fill existing posts reserved for the disabled.

He said that certification of disability by medical boards would henceforth be required for persons with multiple disabilities. Others could get disability certificates from specialist doctors in community health centres and taluk hospitals. The disabled would be issued identity cards which could be used for various purposes.

After the Minister’s reply, the House passed the demands for grants totalling Rs. 613.90 crore. The demands for grants for State Legislature, Elections, Stamps and Registration, Treasury and Accounts, Pensions and Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Economic Services, Information and Publicity, Compensation and Assignments and Miscellaneous Loans and Advances were guillotined.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2555712.ece

BUDS centres for mentally-challenged students in all panchayats

2011-12-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Social Welfare and Panchayat Minister M.K. Muneer said that BUDS Centres for the schooling of special children will be opened in all gram panchayats in the State.

Inaugurating a BUDS Centre at Kolacherry panchayat here on Saturday, the Minister said that the establishment of special schools for the mentally-challenged children was a necessity today. Stating that the government had already established the BUDS Centres in Endosulfan-affected panchayats in the Kasaragod district, Mr. Muneer said that three more centres would be opened in the Kannur district, namely at Chokli, Kannapuram, and Kuttyattoor.

He also assured that one school bus each would be provided from the Kudumbasree Mission to the BUDS Centres after approval received from the Education Department. All the panchayats had been directed to start palliative care centres, he said adding that such centres were started in 400 panchayats.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2562309.ece

Garbage dumping: courtdirective to Mayor, officials

2011-12-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

All told to appear in person before court on December 22

A Division Bench of the Kerala High court on Monday directed the Ernakulam District collector, Kochi Mayor, 11 municipal chairpersons and secretaries in the district to appear in person on December 22 to explain the collection and disposal of garbage in the district.

The Bench comprising Justices C. N. Ramachandran Nair and P. S. Gopinathan issued the directive when a public interest writ petition filed by the Kerala Federation of Women Lawyers against dumping of garbage on roadside came up for hearing.

The court had earlier prohibited throwing away or dumping plastic carry bags or bags made of any other non-biodegradable material which contain waste on any public place or road sides and ordered the police to prosecute those who violate the ban order.

The court had also ordered the DGP to issue instructions to all police stations to conduct patrolling in urban areas and take action against those who dump or dispose of waste in plastic bags at public places and on roadsides.

In today's order, the court pointed out that the Government Pleader had already filed a compliance report and stated that the police were registering cases against those dumping wastes on road sides.

However, the bench noted that waste was still being thrown on road sides and on vacant lands in Kochi areas. The court opined that the police were not serious about the matter and felt that the court order had not served the purpose so far.

The Bench again directed the DGP to instruct police officers to deploy more men on night patrol to book the violators and prosecute them.

The court felt that collection of waste through dust bins in Kochi might not be effective.

If collection was being made from houses through Kudumbasree units or other agencies, it would be very effective.

The resident associations should coordinate arrangement for collection of wastes and payment to the Kudumbasree units or other agencies because the local bodies did not have enough funds for such an arrangement.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2731268.ece

Panchayat to shut down waste treatment plant

2011-12-28T22:50:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

To send notices to Corporation, KWA, and KSEB

Giving a major boost to the agitation against Vilappilsala solid-waste treatment plant, the Vilappil panchayat on Monday passed a resolution to shut down the controversial plant, hours before the blockade of garbage trucks declared by the Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samithi agitators.

Vilappil panchayat president Shobhana Kumari said the resolution was passed at a panchayat meeting held on Monday.

“The resolution was moved by panchayat vice-president Vinod Raj and backed by BJP member Pallimangalam Chandran Nair. All 10 UDF members of the panchayat, four BJP members, and one member of the CPI voted in favour of the resolution to shut down the plant. Only five CPI(M) members voted against it,” she said.

Ms. Shobhana Kumari said the panchayat would soon send notice to the city Corporation in this regard and also to the Kerala Water Authority and the Kerala State Electricity Board to cut off water and electricity supply to the plant.

She added that the panchayat would also support and lead the blockade of garbage trucks from the city, to be held on December 21. “We have given ample time to the city Corporation and the State government to come up with some solution to the difficulties faced by people of Vilappil. This plant has been working here without the license of the panchayat for so many years,” she said.

In another development, an all-party delegation of the city Corporation council, led by Mayor K. Chandrika, met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Monday seeking the State government's support in tackling the crisis at Vilappilsala.

In a written complaint submitted to the Chief Minister, Ms. Chandrika asked him to ensure protection to Corporation staff in the wake of the blockade declared by the Janakeeya Samithi.

On Tuesday, Urban Affairs Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty will convene a meeting of Janakeeya Samithi agitators, Vilappil panchayat authorities, and the Corporation officials.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/article2731412.ece

Ombudsman's directive to provide parking facilities

2011-12-28T22:45:00.001-08:00

by Special Correspondent

A recent directive of the Ombudsman for local self-government institutions for providing minimum required facilities at the existing Kochi Corporation's parking places has come as a relief to vehicle owners in the city.

The Ombudsman criticized the corporation for not providing the basic facilities such as roofing at the parking slots. In the order, Ombudsman M.N. Krishnan pointed out that the corporation was bound to provide parking facilities on its three parking places. Unfortunately, all these parking slots did not have any facilities. The order further said that when vehicles were parked in these places, the drivers found it very difficult to take their vehicles out of the places, resulting in total traffic congestion and obstructions.

In fact, when vehicles are allowed to park on the roads, certain precautions had to be taken, and there must be “specific lines and methodology” for parking the vehicles. It must also be controlled by an experienced person. The attitude of the authority was to collect the parking fee and take no responsibility thereafter. This could not be appreciated. The Ombudsman said the corporation could seek the assistance of the motor vehicle department and the traffic police for controlling or regulating vehicles on the parking slots. The Ombudsman ordered the corporation to “incorporate all types of precaution” and see that when it started collecting fee, at least minimum facilities were put in place.

The Ombudsman passed the order on a petition seeking to restrain the corporation from collecting fees from vehicles parked on the sides of the PWD's roads. According to the petitioner, D.B. Binu, general secretary, Human Rights Defence Forum, the corporation had no authority to collect fee from vehicles parked on the PWD road sides. Besides, he pointed out that even the amount collected from the corporation's parking slots on its roads was not properly accounted.

In fact, the burgeoning parking woes of Kochiites in the city are expected to be over once the automobile parking policy under the JNNURM is implemented. The local self-government department (LSGD) has approved the policy, and has directed the local bodies in the State including the Kochi Corporation to take steps to implement the policy recommendations.

Once the policy is put in place, the corporation would have to identify and designate parking slots for taxis and auto rickshaws. Such parking place could not be located at road junctions and should be off the carriageway at a minimum distance of 75 metres. Location of the existing taxi, autorickshaw and lorry/van stands need to be reviewed and relocated. It was suggested long back that parking policy based on users–pay principle was imperative.

Off-street parking complexes for private vehicles at 39 important nodal points in the city were required to ease traffic congestion on the important carriage ways.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2757215.ece?css=print

Pension applications pending

2011-12-28T22:40:00.000-08:00

by N.J. Nair

No scientific record system
Demand to introduce biometric cards
Planning Board proposes review based on ID cards

Bureaucratic apathy and red-tapism are reportedly delaying the clearance of scores of applications for old age and widow pensions as well as unemployment dole.

The delay in clearing the applications is mainly being attributed to the absence of a scientific record maintenance and updating system in the local self-government institutions across the State. The main victims are the applicants for old age and widow pensions. Genuine indigent applicants are thus being denied of the sole source of financial support from the government.

The responsibility for the disbursal of welfare pensions and unemployment dole was vested with the civic bodies following the decentralisation of powers. Though staff shortage is being cited as a reason for clearing the backlog, bureaucratic indifference and poor maintenance of list of beneficiaries, registers of expenses and documents to prove the credentials of applicants have been cited as the reasons for the delay.

Official sources told The Hindu here that no serious initiatives had been made so far for periodical revision of the list of pensioners, and streamlining the disbursal system by issuing biometric cards. This was on account of the lukewarm response from the Finance Department to the repeated reminders for computerisation, and updating the list.

The proposal for restructuring the system was mooted during the tenure of the previous LDF government after taking steps to clear the pension arrears. The issuance of biometric cards was seen as an effective bid to prevent duplication of beneficiaries and to ensure monthly payment of pensions through automated teller machines.

This would have helped to get rid of the ineligible from the list of beneficiaries by deleting those who draw more than one pension or other benefits simultaneously. Instances of those employed in the private sector and having other employment sources drawing unemployment dole and one person pocketing more than one welfare pension have been reported from various places. But no serious action has been taken to scrutinise the list of beneficiaries of the welfare schemes.

The State Planning Board is understood to have proposed a review based on the identity cards issued by the government. The only option is to make the record maintenance system in civic bodies more efficient and introduce biometric cards for beneficiaries in a phased manner, sources said.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2753802.ece

Garbage raises a stink for State

2011-12-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

by C. Gouridasan Nair

Stand-off in capital city between two local States
Government's role is that of an arbiter

The stand-off between the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation and the Vilappil village panchayat over the disposal of tonnes of solid waste being generated daily by the capital city in the panchayat is perhaps the first sign of the frictions that are waiting to surface in the State in the sphere of local governance.

Hitherto, the frictions between the governing and the governed have mostly been over attempts by the former to encroach into the common property resources and private property holdings for meeting what are described as the larger development needs. The struggle against the Silent Valley hydel project in the dying years of the 1970s, the recent agitations over land acquisition for various infrastructure and industrial projects and the still alive stand-off between the local population and the State government over the Athirappilly hydel project are all instances of the way the larger State has come into conflict with local populations over their respective rights over the common resource pool of the people.

However, the current stand-off in the capital district between two local States — one a municipal corporation with superior resources and the other a village panchayat with nothing but solidarity of the masses giving it strength — is a different story altogether. Here the State government's role is that of an arbiter between the two warring local States, one claiming a right to treat the other as its backyard where it could dump its waste and the other asserting its right of refusal. The trouble perhaps lay in the State government's failure so far to gauge the worsening public mood in the panchayat and the city Corporation's failure to create its waste management infrastructure.

But, if looked at closely, it would become clear that this is not just about solid waste disposal or about a quarrel between a municipal corporation and a village panchayat. The issue is far more complex and should bring into focus issues of inter-State relations at the local level, which should ideally be based on principles of equality and fair play. For Kerala, decentralisation has been as much a learning process as a development initiative. When the efforts for deepening democracy were under discussion and initial implementation, the focus was on cooperation between the local self-government institutions. The block panchayat was in a way conceived as an official framework for cooperation in development planning and execution. However, the present stalemate involving the capital city and its suburban panchayat goes to show that relations between two local States cannot always be based on cooperation and perhaps that there is need for a new grammar of federalism at the grassroots.

The message appears to be that the time has come for policy planners and administrators to work out a new framework of local governance where the voice of every local State carries the same weight.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2746476.ece

Kudumbasree to begin source treatment

2011-12-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Plastic waste will not be collected, says Mayor; BJP hartal on Monday

The City Corporation will deploy Kudumbasree workers, beginning Monday, to carry out ‘at-source' treatment of garbage in the capital city.

Wherever there is space, the workers would bury bio-degradable garbage on the premises of the buildings concerned. Otherwise they would take the garbage to a pre-designated locality in the vicinity and bury the garbage. Plastic waste would not be collected under any circumstances.

The City Corporation has opened a crisis management cell which would coordinate garbage removal work in the city. The cell can be reached on phone. (Nos: 94964 34517 or 0471-2320821- extension 703).

Mayor K. Chandrika told a press conference here on Saturday that the people should notify the cell if they found garbage dumped anywhere in the city.

In the case of large shops and other commercial establishments garbage would be removed and taken away for landfills on payment of a fee. This would be done only if the establishment concerned does not have space to bury its garbage.

Plots identified

The corporation has identified 22 plots of land in the city where garbage would be buried till the time garbage treatment plants are set up. These include the Vizhinjam harbour area; the bund colony road at Kannammoola; the medical college compound road; the corporation property at Vettakkulam; Chenthitta; the mental health centre; Vattiyoorkkavu; the kariavattom college campus; the central school compound; All Saints Junction; the Chithranjali studio complex; housing board land at Nanthancode; the Manjalikkulam ground; the civil station premises, Kudappanakkunnu; the city school premises, Palayam; the Central Jail compound, Poojappura; the Sewage Farm, Poonthura, and the land behind the flower market at Anayara.

Garbage would be buried here in a manner that does not cause any inconvenience to people. “This garbage would only make these plots of land more fertile,” Ms. Chandrika said.

Compost systems

The Corporation is willing to give away—free of cost—the organic waste from markets in the city. If any agency running, say, a pig-rearing centre or other agricultural enterprise, wishes to get the market-waste, it has to register with the Corporation. The corporation is working on a scheme to install ring-composting systems in all households, she said.

The BJP, meanwhile, has called for a hartal in the city on Monday in protest against what it termed the corporation's inaction on the garbage issue.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2746732.ece

Vilappilsala, a lesson for Kochi Corporation

2011-12-26T22:31:00.000-08:00

by G. Krishnakumar

The setback suffered by the ambitious garbage processing plant of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation at Vilappilsala can give some hard lessons to the Kochi Corporation authorities who are planning to set up a new centralised plant in Brahmapuram.

The unbearable stench from the Vilappilsala plant had triggered public protests earlier, forcing the local bodies to halt dumping at the site on several occasions. The residents living near the now defunct Brahmapuram plant had also complained of foul smell emanating from the plant.

Hundreds of children at the Rajagiri Christu Jayanthi School at Kakanad had recently submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to take immediate corrective measures to check the odour. Local people in Vilappilsala have been up in arms over the environmental pollution caused by the dumpsite. The leachate (the liquid that drain from the waste heaps) from the dumpsite was responsible for the pollution of the Chowalloor stream which joins the Karamana river downstream.

Studies conducted by the State Pollution Control Board had found that leakage of leachate from the solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram had contaminated the nearby Kadambrayar. Board sources said that the shortcomings in the construction of the plant could be a major reason for the leakage of leachate from the plant. They also admitted that the site was selected without mandatory assessment as per the Central Pollution Control Board guidelines. Site with high water table and near freshwater sources is not acceptable.

The private group that had set up the Vilappilsala plant had refused to operate the plant citing insufficient supply of waste. Processing of waste at the Brahmapuram plant had also come to a standstill on several occasions, as the private company responsible for operating the plant here also cited a similar reason at the initial stage.

An expert committee of the Kochi Corporation had pointed out in 2004 that the total volume of biodegradable waste generated in Kochi would not exceed 100 tonnes per day. It is reliably learnt that the Pollution Control Board is likely to recommend that the Kochi Corporation need not set up a mega compost production plant at Brahmapuram based on an inference that the total volume of biodegradable waste generated in the city would not exceed 150 tonnes a day.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2746541.ece

Wastes fill streets; Kerala capital stinks

2011-12-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

Stench filled the air of entire Thiruvananthapuram city, capital of God’s Own Country, on Friday, two days after the local panchayat committee in neighbouring Vilappilsala unilaterally closed the dumping yard there, the only waste management facility that used to receive and process the whole waste produced by the city.

Stinking wastes filled city street-sides, parking lots and banks of canals everywhere on Friday. City-dwellers were left with no choice but to dump their wastes everyday at the nearest available spot as garbage trucks of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation were lying idle in the garages. They had no place to take the 400 tons of wastes the city produced daily.

The Vilappilsala panchayat authorities, under pressure from the people who were fed up with bearing the stench of wastes which were not theirs, closed – in a sense illegally – the dumping yard owned by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation on Wednesday in the context of water contamination and spreading diseases in the whole area.

The corporation authorities have taken a stand that garbage need not be collected from the city till the State Government found an alternate place to set up a dumping yard while the Vilappilsala Grama Panchayat committee decided not to allow even a single truck carrying city waste into the panchayat area.

Hopes of a resolution to the dispute shattered on Friday afternoon after the discussions called by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of all concerned parties collapsed. The Government said that it had found an alternate place to convert into a waste management facility but it needed a minimum of three months to get it ready.

However, delegates from the panchayat remained firm that not even an hour could be given to the Government as it had broken all the promises it had made earlier. Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty and Transports Minister VS Sivakumar, who also attended the meeting, said that the discussions would continue.

The Vilappilsala panchayat committee decided to approach the High Court against an allegedly humiliating statement made by the city Mayor against the panchayat president. The meeting saw uproarious scenes after the panchayat’s delegates asked the Mayor to withdraw the statement and tender a public apology.

The Vilappilsala People’s Council, which has been agitating against the garbage dump for the past several months in the context of contamination of almost all the wells within a radius of a kilometer and spread of various diseases, is determined not to allow the corporation to bring wastes to their area anymore.

In the meantime, wastes dumped on the roadsides and banks of canals began to spread foul smell all over the capital city. City-dwellers say that they have no alternative but to throw their wastes on the street-side when the garbage trucks are lying idle in the garages. Complaints have come up that wastes from slaughter houses are being dumped on the banks of water bodies.

Corporation authorities said there was nothing they could do when the Government was not putting forward a creative suggestion and the panchayat had unilaterally closed the only dumping yard even as environmentalists expressed the concern that the wastes dumped openly could pose a huge health hazard for the entire city by the time the Christmas was over.

Source : http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/kochi/29963-wastes-fill-streets-kerala-capital-stinks.html

HC for effective night patrolling to curb waste dumping

2011-12-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

TNN Dec 20, 2011, 03.29AM ISTTags:

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Monday asked the DGP to employ more police personnel for night patrolling to detect cases of dumping of waste in public places in plastic bags. The court also asked the district collector, mayor and chairpersons of municipal corporations in the district to appear in person in the court to explain their views on effective prevention of dumping of waste.

Even though the police had filed a report stating that cases were being registered against those violating the high court order of November 22 banning disposal of waste in plastic bags, the court expressed dissatisfaction over the actions taken by the police.

Source : http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-20/kochi/30538653_1_plastic-bags-waste-dgp

Police warn against disposal of waste in public places

2011-12-23T03:12:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Nodal officers to monitor progress of ‘Operation Sweep'

The police will take stringent action against those who dispose of garbage in public places. As part of the ‘Operation Sweep' launched by Kerala Police on November 22, Inspector General of Police (Thrissur Range) B. Sandhya has directed City Police Commissioner P. Vijayan to take stern action against those who throw garbage in the open.

The police have launched the programme following a judgement by the High Court (WP (c) No. 27052/11) against throwing solid waste in public places.

Mr. Vijayan warned against dumping septic tank waste in paddy fields and rivers. Those who pollute environment with plastic will be booked under Sections 268 read with sections 269 and 278 of the Indian Penal Code and 120 (e) of the Kerala Police Act.

Special patrolling

Special patrolling will be launched to check improper waste disposal. The entire police force will be sensitised on the High Court judgement. A nodal officer will be nominated at the district level, and an officer at each police station, to monitor the progress of ‘Operation Sweep'.

All police stations and armed reserve camps will be declared plastic-free zones. Each police station will prepare an action plan to detect and prevent roadside dumping and polluting rivers. Circle Inspectors will convene meetings in this connection at the Corporation, municipality and panchayat levels. Night patrol parties will be put on high alert.

The police stations will seek the support of political parties, residents' associations, social organisations and Kudumbashree units for implementing the programme. The IG has directed all police stations to function as models for waste disposal. Pits will be dug in all police stations to dispose biodegradable waste.

The police plan to convene meetings of shop-owners to ensure that plastic carry bags are not supplied to the public. Use of flex boards will be discouraged. People would be encouraged to use cloth and other natural material for advertisement purposes, the IG said.

Notices will be served on flats and hospitals that use plastic carry bags to dispose of biodegradable waste. Senior officers will assess the progress of the scheme on a daily basis. The district police chief has been asked to send weekly assessment reports to the State nodal office.

The public has been asked to alert police stations against any violation of the court order. The State police headquarters may be alerted through SMS to the cell phone number: 94970 00000.

Source :http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2683419.ece?css=print

Court pulls up Corporation

2011-12-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Roads not repaired in the time limit fixed by the court.

The Kerala High Court on Monday orally criticized the Kochi Corporation for not repairing roads within the time limit fixed by the court.

Justice Haroon Ul Rashid said Kochi Corporation would have to face consequences for asking more and more time to complete the work. The court made the oral observation when the petition seeking to extend the time for repairing the roads filed by the PWD and the Kochi Corporation came up before it.

The Public Works Department (PWD) sought more time to complete road repair work in view of the expiry of an earlier deadline set by the court.

The court declined to give extension of time and directed the PWD and the Corporation to complete the road works at the earliest.

The court had also asked Kochi Corporation to complete the repair work by December 15. In an affidavit, the PWD sought to extend the time till December 30. It had said that the repair works could not be completed as planned due to rains in November. The PWD had pointed out that 92 per cent of the repair work had been completed and the rest of the work could be completed only by December 30.

The court had directed the PWD and the Kochi Corporation to undertake road repairs when a writ petition filed by C. P. Ajit Kumar came up for hearing.

The government had submitted that it had drawn up a detailed plan for road maintenance. It submitted that disciplinary action would be taken against those officials responsible for the delay in repairing roads. The government had submitted that repair and maintenance work of roads would be completed by November 30.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2731269.ece?css=print

Council ratifies waste disposal Ordinance

2011-12-23T02:47:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Focus on treatment at source level

The city Corporation Council on Thursday ratified a government ordinance which mandates that commercial establishments including, markets, poultry stalls, abattoirs, hospitals, hotels that can seat more that 20 people, and residential apartments with more than three floors should possess source-level garbage treatment facilities.

The Council resolution accepted the amendments on the Kerala Municipality Act as per the Kerala Municipality (Second Amendment) Ordinance notified by the State government recently.

As per the Ordinance, only those establishments/institutions which had space constraints in processing waste on its premises could rely on the waste processing system set up by the Corporation after paying a processing charge. Segregation of plastic and biodegradable waste had also been made mandatory under the Ordinance.

Corporation Mayor K. Chandrika said the new amendments made to the Act will come into force when the garbage-collection mechanism of the Corporation would be back on track after the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant crisis was resolved.

The resolution also included new pricing for plastic carry bags introduced by the Corporation, as per the Ordinance, to discourage the use of plastic. According to this, the minimum retail price for plastic carry bags in the 41 to 50 microns range had been hiked to Rs.8. The minimum retail price for plastic bags above 71 microns will be Rs.10.

Sellers will also have to pay additional fee to the Corporation for the sale of every plastic bag. The money thus collected will be invested in the garbage disposal fund to be set up by the civic body. The new pricing will come into effect on Friday.

The Mayor also informed the Council about the new source-level waste treatment and anti-plastic campaign planned by the Corporation. Under the campaign, two lakh ring compost units would be installed in houses in the city for treating biodegradable waste. The project for setting up biogas plants in houses had been extended to all 100 wards of the Corporation under the campaign. Beneficiaries who would come forward to be part of the project would be given a total 75 per cent subsidy by the Corporation and State government.

Observation of ‘no plastic' day in wards, propagation of paper and cloth bags, organisation of anti-plastic campaign programmes and competitions, strengthening the ban on plastic below 40 microns, and propagation of message against the use of plastic through the media would be among the programmes to be conducted under the anti-plastic campaign.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/article2741513.ece?css=print

Grama sabhas must play key role in revitalising society: Chandy

2011-12-23T02:44:00.000-08:00

by Staff Reporter

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has stressed the need to strengthen the efficiency of the grama sabhas so as to help them play their critical role in revitalising society.

Inaugurating the State level inauguration of the training programme organised by Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) for grama sabha members at his home ward, Ward 16 of Puthuppally grama panchayat on Saturday, Mr. Chandy said the grama sabhas have a two-pronged role to play: one, to fill the vacuum left by the disintegration of the joint families and two, to act as a catalyst for development and growth at the grassroots level.

However, to play these roles effectively, it was imperative that these grassroots level bodies were kept out of politicking. “Today, while most of the grama sabhas have a lifeless existence, many are venues for cornering the respective grama panchayat members or making undeserving gains,” he said.

The disintegration of joint families has thrown up a host of social ills as some of the issues effectively handled by the system are now left without any mechanism to address them. “Now we do not know what is happening in our neighbourhood and have lost the inclination to share,” he said. One of the key reasons for the increasing social ills like suicides, disruption of families, decline in values, is the big vacuum left by the disintegration of the old system and the failure of any new structure to take over it. The grama sabhas are one such mechanism which would be able to fill this vacuum, he said.

Secondly, the grama sabhs provide a platform for people's participation in deciding the development and growth at the local level. Being the basic unit of participatory democracy, the vibrancy of the grama sabhas is essential for the vitality of the panchayati raj system, he said.

According P.P. Balan, director, KILA, over 38 lakh people in 19,255 wards would be trained during the one-month period. The programme has been designed to give a fillip to the functioning of the grama sabhas by ensuring effective people's participation, their effective intervention in administrative and developmental issues, and to create the right attitude among the people.

“Increased intervention from the people will make the local self-governments more transparent and efficient,” he said.

The Chief Minister also released the handbook for grama sabha members, prepared by KILA. Jessymol Manoj, president, Puthuppally grama panchayat, chaired the session. Valsmamma Mani, member of Ward 16 (Angadi) welcomed the gathering.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2723826.ece?css=print

Ordinances against waste dumping soon

2011-12-23T02:39:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Subsidy on biogas units will be raised: Muneer
Says Bills will be introduced in next Assembly session Government plans to phase out plastic carry-bags
Says Bills will be introduced in next Assembly session Government plans to phase out plastic carry-bags

The government proposes to issue ordinances amending the Acts governing municipalities and panchayats to mandate stringent punishment to those who pollute the environment with garbage and other waste materials.

Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare M.K. Muneer stated this while inaugurating a workshop and exhibition on indigenous technologies in waste management at the Kanakakunnu Palace here on Tuesday.

He said the Bills to replace the proposed ordinances would be introduced in the Assembly during its next session. “Waste management is the biggest problem confronting Kerala now. Tackling it is an urgent priority. eople should dispose of the waste they generate at their houses by adopting technologies developed by various agencies,” he said.

Mr. Muneer said the government had already decided to increase the subsidy on biogas units from the existing 50 per cent of the cost to 75 per cent. The order regarding this would be issued soon.

He said the government was also working on a plan to phase out plastic carry-bags, which should be replaced by bags made of degradable materials. The problem of waste management in big cities was not of the same nature as that in panchayats. High-end technologies were now being considered by cities such as Kochi to manage the problem.

Reward promised

He said it was heartening that some of the panchayats had started seriously looking at the problem of waste management, experimenting with indigenously developed technologies to tackle it. Panchayats that could achieve “zero-waste condition” in their areas would be rewarded by the government.

He said the Suchitva Mission was now spearheading a year-long campaign for a clean Kerala.

“We should be able to tackle 80 per cent of the problem within that time. In two years we should make the State a zero-waste zone,” Mr. Muneer said.

Expo on

Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation K. Chandrika presided over the inaugural function.

The exhibition of various indigenously developed methods, suitable for use at the level of individual houses and at the level of apartment complexes, hotels and such establishments that generate big volume of waste, would continue at the Sooryakanthi Exhibition Ground, near the Kanakakunnu Palace, on Wednesday also.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2673319.ece?css=print

MGNREGS workers lack awareness of rights: study

2011-12-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

by Sangeetha Unnithan

Study undertaken by TISS on a request by government

A study conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, on the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State has revealed that the workers enrolled in the schme were largely unaware of the various right-based provisions in the MGNREG Act.

These include particularly the right to demand work, receive timely wages, and receive unemployment allowance.

The TISS had undertaken the study in 2010-11 period on a request by the State government to evaluate the implementation of NREGS in two districts each that were in phase I and phase II stage of its implementation.

The study, which followed a multi-stage purposive sampling format, was undertaken in 60 grama panchayats spread in Palakkad, Wayanad, Idukki and Kasaragod districts.

The report of the study was submitted to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy recently.

Fully lacking

“We found in the study that awareness of right-based framework of scheme, which is really the essence of NREGS, was absolutely lacking among workers. Although the details of the right-based provisions of the scheme are printed on the back of the job cards, even this had not helped in enhancing awareness among workers,” said Jyothi Krishnan, team leader of the study.

“This came as a surprise in a State like Kerala, which boasts high literacy rates among other social indicators.”

Asset creation

Another major finding of the study, which was supervised by TISS director S. Parasuraman, was regarding the assets created through the scheme.

The study found that the repetitive nature of works, which were mostly limited to construction of roadside drains and desilting of ponds and clearing of vegetation, prevented the NREGS from meeting its objective of watershed development and restoration of degraded natural resources.

“Kerala is the one of the three States in the country that has minimum spending on material component. But increasing the material component may not be the solution to creation of assets. What is required is better planning and participation in labour budget preparation,” Ms Krishnan said.

The TISS study also made interesting insight into the impact of the scheme in the context of women's empowerment. With 90 per cent of the NREGS workforce in the State comprising women, Kerala topped in the participation of women in project.

However, the study pointed out that informed participation of women in the project was still lacking, particularly in the case of underprivileged women and those belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe communities.

Poor representation

Women from these backgrounds were also poorly represented amongst the ‘mates', who hold supervisory position at NREGS worksites.

The report further suggested a total restructuring of the mate system. It recommended that instead of selecting mates from the Kudumbasree Area Development Societies executive body, they should be chosen from among the workers.

Power centres

“Initially, when the project was launched, assigning women from Kudumbasree ADS executive body was a revolutionary shift from the usual contractor-supervised system. But now mates, who usually come from a different economic and social background from the workers, had emerged as power centres. This had led to some issues such as favouritism and politicisation,” Ms. Krishnan said.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2658440.ece?css=print

LSGIs to get back powers

2011-12-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

by Special Correspondent

Licence for liquor shops

The Excise Department has decided to restore the powers of local self- government institutions to issue licence and regulate abkari shops in their jurisdiction. Excise Minister K. Babu issued orders in this direction on Wednesday night. The measure will require amendments to the Panchayati Raj Act and Municipalities Act.
When the laws were enacted in 1994, the local self-government institutions had been given powers to decide whether they wanted to allow abkari shops in their area. However, this was subsequently withdrawn on the ground that such jurisdiction would come in conflict with the abkari policy of the government.

UDF panel suggestion

A subcommittee of the ruling United Democratic Front, which critically examined the current excise policy of the government, had recommended that the powers originally granted to the local bodies be restored.

Legislative process

As administrative department, the Excise Department issued orders to give effect to the recommendations. However, the matter would now have to go through the legislative process.The government has not yet decided whether to give effect to the decision through an ordinance or through enactment of legislation in the Assembly. Excise Minister K. Babu told The Hindu that the decision would be given effect during the current financial year itself.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2679884.ece

Panchayat members' honorarium to go up

2011-10-24T02:05:00.000-07:00

by Special Correspondent

The Sate government will revise the honorarium of panchayat members. The proposal will be placed before the Cabinet for ratification soon, Minister for Panchayats and Social Welfare M.K. Muneer has said.

Replying to questions in the Assembly on Friday, Dr. Muneer said the formalities for the revision of the honorarium had been completed and the revised honorarium would be given after the Cabinet cleared the proposal.

A committee for coordinating the functions of the Urban Affairs and the Panchayats Ministries has been constituted. The committee will hold monthly meetings and the first one will be held in the first week of November.

Engineers will be appointed on contract to overcome the shortage of engineers and overseers in grama panchayats. Preliminary steps have been taken to accord deemed university status to the Kerala Institute of Local Administration. The institute will impart training on the conduct of grama sabhas.

A two-member committee has been appointed to review the staff pattern in panchayats. The norms for expending the tribal sub-plan and the special component plan funds for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes will be amended so that local bodies will face no hitches in utilising the funds within the time frame.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2539416.ece?css=print

Chandy stresses importance of settling disputes out of court

2011-10-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

by Special Correspondent

KELSA willing to set up legal aid clinics in all panchayats

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday said that delay and failure to implement the laws would affect the right of the people to get justice.

Inaugurating a one-day sensitisation programme for local body members on various laws, organised by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA), he said that the problem was not the lack of laws but the delay and failure to implement them in their true spirit. Such a situation would affect the people badly.

Mr. Chandy said the local body members would be able to make people aware of their legal rights and educate them about the benefits of various laws. The programme would also equip them to resolve the disputes among people quickly and solve them in the initial stages.

He emphasised the need for solving disputes out-of-court.

Presiding over the function, acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court and Executive Chairman of KELSA C.N. Ramachandran Nair said that KELSA had established 150 legal aid clinics in the State. KELSA was an authority set up with the funds of the people. Therefore, the people had every right to get the benefits of free legal aid and other schemes provided by the authority. KELSA was willing to set up legal aid clinics in every grama panchayat if the local bodies arranged space for housing the clinics.

Seeking the help of legal aid clinics would save money and precious time for citizens. He said that most of the people were really in the dark about the activities of KELSA. He, therefore, called upon the members of local bodies to convey the message of free legal aid and other schemes of the authority to the needy.

B. Kemal Pash, Ernakulam Principal District Judge and Chairman, Ernakulam District Legal Services Authority; K.P. Dandapani, Advocate General; Thomas Abraham, President, Kerala High Court Advocates' Association; and George Merlo Pallath, President, Ernakulam Bar Association; spoke.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2542484.ece

Waste disposal: strong legislation on the cards

2011-10-24T01:58:00.001-07:00

by Roy Mathew

Processing at source may be made mandatory

Kerala may be in for stringent legislation on waste management as waste remains a major environmental and health hazard in the State.

The Legislature Committee on Environment recommended in its report submitted early this year that law should be brought to make waste processing mandatory at the source itself. Housing colonies, hotels and restaurants, resorts, hospitals, hostels, slaughterhouses, and markets should not be allowed to function if they failed to treat their waste.

The committee suggested that biogas plants and compost-making units should be set up in different locations for treatment of organic waste. Rules should be specified for recycling and disposal of non-organic waste. Recycling of waste water should be made mandatory, and any act that caused water pollution should be made a punishable offence.

It observed that the implementation of the ban on plastic carry bags thinner than 30 microns had not been effective. The ban should be made stringent, covering bags with thickness of up to 50 microns.

The committee wanted the government to bring legislation to ensure that manufacturers took back used cadmium batteries, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), cell phones, computers, and other electronic waste for processing, recycling, or proper disposal. The committee felt that the police should act under the provisions of the Police Act to check pollution. The Act had provisions that empowered the district magistrate to prevent disposal of waste in public places through regulations, the committee noted.

Its recommendations are under consideration of the government.

The government had announced as part of a 10-point programme for waste management that a law would be brought making waste processing systems mandatory in flats, villas, commercial complexes, community halls, and hotels, and prevent dumping of waste in public places.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article2544561.ece