Gram Panchayat allegedly dumps trash into abandoned stone quarry at Manjalpade

Loads of trash, including plastic, dumped at an abandoned quarry at Manjalpade on Bondel-Manjalpade Road, off airport road and the subsequent outflow of rainwater contaminated with the trash towards Padushedde and Maravoor vented dam has triggered anxiety among the residents since Wednesday.

Loads of trash, including plastic, dumped at an abandoned quarry at Manjalpade on Bondel-Manjalpade Road, off airport road and the subsequent outflow of rainwater contaminated with the trash towards Padushedde and Maravoor vented dam has triggered anxiety among the residents since Wednesday.

Residents of Padushedde and Manjalpade, who gathered at the site on Wednesday and Thursday, blamed the Moodushedde Gram Panchayat of dumping the waste at the quarry site. Rain water flowing out of the quarry was contaminating their paddy fields, coconut plantations, and open wells, they alleged. The water later joins the Maravoor vented dam built across Phalguni (Gurupura) River that supplies water to villages under the multi-village drinking water scheme.

Moodushedde Gram Panchayat officials initially admitted to having dumped the waste on Wednesday in the presence of the protesting people and promised to remove the waste. Since the area is secluded being a forest area, people also used to dump waste on road flanks following which the GP had installed CCTV cameras in the area.

Panchayat Development Officer Jayaprakash on Thursday told The Hindu that the waste must have been dumped from the adjoining city area and claimed the panchayat processes waste in its processing centre. “We are clearing the waste now,” he added.

Zilla Panchayat CEO K. Anandh said he learned about the incident on Thursday morning and directed immediate removal of the waste. Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer and the PDO are supervising the clearing operation. Boats have been deployed to collect the trash while the water will be cleaned using chlorination process later.

There were claims and counter claims as to who dumped the waste at the site; but it was the GP’s responsibility to ensure no waste was dumped in public places. Since it was a secluded area, nobody knew about the dumping until the accumulated rainwater began flowing out, Mr. Anandh said. The recovered waste would be processed in the GP’s processing centre, he added.

Mr. Anandh further said the abandoned quarry would be beautified as a water body. When people frequent the area after beautification, waste dumping would naturally stop, he said.