Chennai: To ensure a clean Chennai city and suburbs, the Tamil Nadu government has proposed a mass cleaning programme. Announcing the plan, chief minister J Jayalalithaa said in the assembly on Monday that accumulated wastes would be cleared and drainages cleaned up in three months. Jayalalithaa, who undertook an aerial survey on August 5 to take stock of the dumping of plastic waste, said there was a huge accumulation of garbage and several residential areas were inundated by storm and drainage water due to this."It is very unhygienic," she said.

In the first phase of the mass clean-up programme, the waste will be removed and the stagnant water in several areas cleared. In the budget presented recently, the government had pointed out that due to migration and rapid urbanisation many of the cities and towns are severely stressed in terms of basic infrastructure and amenities. In most of the cities and towns, there are significant gaps in water supply, sewerage and sanitation, solid waste disposal and other modern civic amenities like parking space, bus stands and public parks.

As per the budget provision, the government will come out with a comprehensive project for solid waste management in Chennai and its suburban areas and avail of carbon credits, Jayalalithaa said. Similarly, a comprehensive project would be implemented for water management, which includes improving and integrating the sewerage system in the city and its suburban areas, treatment and recycling of waste water and preventing the entry of sewage water into the city’s river system. "This will facilitate an integrated management of waste water besides protecting the city river system from pollution," Jayalalithaa said.

A senior official from municipal administration and water supply said cleaning the city will be a challenging task for the officials. “For this project, public participation is required,” he said. A detailed plan would be ready shortly, he said. Civic activist Ramachandra Rao from Kodungaiyur said the government should find a dumping place outside the city. “The government should ensure that there should not be any residential complex within 500 meters of the dumping yard. A compound wall should be constructed around the dumping yard,” he said.

In addition, the government also proposed to launch special programmes – the Chennai mega city development for city and its suburban areas and the integrated urban development mission for all other corporations, municipalities and town panchayats to supplement the available funds under various schemes. The government has allocated Rs 500 crore for Chennai mega city development mission and Rs 750 crore will be spent to implement integrated urban development in the budget estimates.


Source: Aug 9, 2011, TOI