Kalamassery municipality asked to ensure scientific treatment of refuse The State Level Monitoring Committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal has said that the Kalamassery municipality can
Emulating the success story of the Sreekaryam market where a waste-to-energy plant set up six years ago continues to light up the entire market and the nearby street, the city Corporation is planning to set up biogas plants in the city’s markets. Such plants in addition to treating waste at source will generate electricity as well, and in Sreekaryam the plant powers 118 bulbs.
District Medical Officer warns of an epidemic outbreak Garbage disposal in the city has been hit for the last 10 days. The corporation had signed a contract with a Salem-based company for removing the city’s garbage. However, garbage removal from the city to Salem got disrupted after residents of Salem protested against dumping the waste there. Protests were also held alleging corruption in the contract. With the disposal of waste hit, piles of garbage have started resurfacing in most parts of the city.
Amalabharathom programme at Sabarimala concludes Over 3,200 volunteers of the Amalabharathom campaign, attached to Mata Amritanandamayi Math, took part in a two-day cleaning drive which concluded at Sabarimala here on Sunday. A host of prominent people, including former union Minister O. Rajagopal; Amrita University vice chancellor P. Venkat Rangan; and a good number of professionals from India and abroad took part in the campaign.
The row over the Kerala Land Use Bill is uncalled as the government has not yet decided on piloting amendments to the Bill, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said. Presenting a review of the Saptadhara scheme announced in November last, Mr. Chandy told reporters here on Sunday that the recommendations of two commission reports, one submitted in 2003 and the V.R. Krishna Iyer committee recommendations submitted during the tenure of the previous LDF government, were passed on to the departments concerned for eliciting their views as a routine procedure. The reports had not come in for a scrutiny so far. Along with the land use Bill, four others were also forwarded to various departments, he said.
District administration yet to start recycling units under MAP Not a single plastic recycling unit has till date started functioning under any of the local bodies in the district though the district administration had promised to set up a few of them in different parts of the district as part of its much hyped MAP (Mass Action for Plastic-waste-fee Kozhikode) project two years ago. However, a few private entrepreneurs have taken up the responsibility of freeing the district from the bane of plastic waste even before the city Corporation set up its much awaited recycling unit at West Hill.
Coastal communities would be the first to be hit by climate change, said Anil K. Gupta, Executive Vice-Chair, National Innovation Foundation, Hyderabad. Prof. Gupta was delivering the plenary talk during the inauguration of the national seminar on traditional knowledge and management systems in fisheries at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, here on Tuesday. The traditional knowledge available with people can help in indicating climate change and its impact. The Akshaya e-centres of Kerala could be utilised for traditional knowledge dissemination. Ethically correct and sustainable traditional knowledge needed to be encouraged, he said.
Central project was in limbo for two years A Union government project to make Thiruvananthapuram a ‘Solar City’ is showing signs of revival. The project lay dormant for two years, until the last Corporation Council meeting. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had decided to make Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi ‘Solar Cities’ under the 11th Five Year Plan.
The city Corporation has initiated action against 37 persons for dumping garbage on roads in the past one week and collected a fine of Rs.22,040 from them. During checks carried out in 88 shops during the week, Corporation officials seized banned plastic weighing 4.5 kg from 10 shops and imposed penalties. The officials also carried out checks in 29 hotels in the Corporation limits and served notice on 13 hotels where anomalies were found.
The State government is planning to declare the 148 sq. km. buffer zone of Silent Valley National Park as the new Bhavani-Kadalundi Wildlife Sanctuary “for ensuring long-term protection of the entire bio-diversity of the area” that include the unique rain forests of Silent Valley. The draft notification on constituting a new wildlife sanctuary in the State sent by the Forest Department underlined the ecological, faunal, floral, geomorphologic, natural and zoological significance of the area.
The Sanitation Mission expects more local bodies in the district to come up with projects for decentralised waste treatment in the wake of enhanced subsidy component by the State government for compost units and biogas plants. The State government has hiked the subsidy component for various types of compost units to 90 per cent, and biogas plants to 75 per cent. The government subsidy will be routed through the Sanitation Mission.
