Festival clean-up praised, but Mylapore’s waste woes persist

Efforts to keep Mylapore clean during festivals and regular days, urging residents to dispose waste properly.

Thousands of people converged on the narrow streets of Mylapore this week, all to witness the Arubathu Moovar and chariot festival of the Kapaleeswarar temple. And when an extraordinary number of people gather in a small area in the city, a lot of garbage accumulates. Yet, the next morning, the streets glistened and were cleaner than even usual, maybe. Residents were appreciative of the remarkable work that went into the clean-up efforts during the festival.

However, as things slipped back into every day activity mode in Mylapore after the festival, open dumping has resumed along the lanes surrounding the Kapaleeshwarar temple and its tank. Residents, who appreciated the clean-up efforts during the festival, urged the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to have similar rigour in removing waste even on regular days.

Before dawn on the day following the Arubathu Moovar festival, the streets of Mylapore were clean, an improvement compared to previous years, thanks to the efforts of many conservancy workers, said C.R. Balaji of Mandaveli, a long-time participant of the festival. He said more workers had been deployed this year.

A member of the Thirumayilai Sripadham group, which helps the conduct of festivals in the temple, said that just after midnight, the work to clean the Mada streets began. “This was just after the idols of Lord Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal entered the temple. A lot of volunteers joined hands with the workers of the GCC. The main problem were the free food distribution points, where cooking was done on the spot. They did not remove the vegetable waste and washed utensils at the same spot, making the roads slushy and dirty,” he pointed out.

Asked if better garbage management could be done during the festival, when the idols of the 63 Nayanmar Saints are brought out in procession, he said placing garbage bins at regular intervals would not work as the volume of the crowd was too huge, with people fighting for every inch of leg space.

The usual amount of waste collected on the 33 streets of Mylapore is 300 kg. During the Mylapore Panguni festival, it was up to 3.7 tonnes, according to Urbaser Sumeet, the private company partnered with the GCC for waste collection. The special cleaning modus operandi will be done on Sunday as well. Bins were set up at each annadhanam stall and banners promoting proper waste disposal were set up. Pre-event meetings with temple authorities, residents, and residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) were also held, a statement said.

Meanwhile, Latha, a roadside vendor, while pointing to a pile of fruit waste dumped by eatery owners on North Mada Street, said: “The conservancy workers remove these every two or so hours. Open dumping continues to be daily occurrence. Many food and juice vendors repeatedly discard waste behind banners and in bus shelters. Fines or penalties have not been imposed by authorities as far as I’ve seen.”