THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even when the Mayor and her team have been reiterating the need to stop sending the city waste to Vilappilsala and setting up biowaste treatment units in wards, half the councillors are yet to awake to the situation. Other than taking on each other in the Council meetings, most of the UDF and LDF councillors are yet to show any interest in identifying places in their respective wards where the units could be set up. A meeting called by the Mayor and the Health Standing Committee on Friday to discuss the issue has stated in solid terms that the councillors must identify the spots without delay. “We have given them a week’s time, during which they must spare some thoughts for this issue,” said S Pushpalatha, Health Standing Committee Chairperson. In the first phase, the Corporation has plans to introduce the decentralised programme in 15 wards. The Poojappura and Fort areas are to hold the ward committees and meetings of residents’ associations on Sunday to take forward the programme in their respective wards. In Friday’s meeting, it was decided to carry it forward to the newly formed wards in the next phase. But, even then, the programme is yet to create any ripples in the rest of the wards, in the total 100. ‘’The major problem is that the councillors are afraid that the waste from adjacent wards would also be dumped in the unit in their ward if it comes up first. Many councillors have expressed such a concern. The irony is that they have no inhibitions in saying that the waste should be sent to Vilappilsala, but they would not allow waste from outside their respective wards,” said a health official. The outbursts of the councillor of Manacaud over the issue of setting up a plastic shredder at the market there has been cited as an example. ‘’Many councillors are yet to realise the need for arriving at solutions as early as possible. But we are pushing them to do that,” said Pushpalatha. However, there are allegations that the decentralised programme is moving at a slow pace since the CPM area committee meetings are on and many of the chairpersons are engaged in that affair. However, Pushpalatha said that the ward committees are to meet in the wards and the places and beneficiaries to be identified, which was why the delay occurred.
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