The government has denied reports that garbage from the State was dumped near Anamalai on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border.
The submission was made before the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal, which had taken suo motu cognisance of a report in The Hindu titled ‘Dumping of garbage filed near Anamalai, trucks seized’ published on April 9.
The report had stated that farmers and residents of Semanampathy near Anamalai foiled the attempt by a group of men to dump three truckloads of garbage, allegedly from Kerala. The tribunal had asked the Kerala government to file a report on the implementation of Solid Waste management Rules, 2016 and Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 in its bordering districts.
The Hindu report had pointed out that deep pits were dug in a private tract of land near Anamalai using an excavator to dump the garbage. Around 20 men who were working there fled after local residents raised objections and sought the intervention of the Revenue Department and the police. It was suspected that the trucks came from Palakkad and Thrissur districts.
The report filed by the government stated that the biomedical waste generated in six hospitals in Thrissur was collected, transported and scientifically treated by the Indian Medical Association Goes Eco-friendly (IMAGE) facility in Palakkad. The non-biodegradable wastes were collected by the local bodies through Haritha Karma sena and segregated at its own resource recovery and material collection facilities.
The report said that there were 838 healthcare facilities in Palakkad. Of this, three units were having captive biomedical waste treatment and disposal facility. The rest were affiliated to the IMAGE. Action was taken whenever defects were notices in the hospitals.
There were no chances of mixing of biomedical waste with general solid waste in the healthcare facilities. There has been no incident of large-scale illegal dumping of solid waste or any report of illegal transport of solid waste outside the district in the recent past, it claimed.
