Cant get work done from NMF

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation seems to have its hands tied on the garbage disposal front. With but months left before the civic body’s truck with Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF) ends, garbage disposal seems to have gone for a toss in the city. Corporation officials say they are not able to push NMF to effectively deal with the growing garbage crisis. “The most visible change in the city in the past few months has been that,” says R Vancheeswaran, a resident of CIT Colony, pointing to a heap of garbage on the street corner. “With local body polls so close, I don’t understand how the current Corporation bosses are allowing this to happen,” he says. Other parts of the city face even bigger troubles. In Thiruvanmiyur’s South Avenue, for instance, NMF trucks have been dumping garbage collected elsewhere on a street corner. For months, the truck has been coming here past midnight and dumping the garbage here. Residents say they know the truck has made its nightly visit as the stench immediately engulfs the night air. “Oh no, not Zone 10 again. We are doing our best, but we are helpless,” groaned a Corporation official when this reporter raised a question about the new ‘dumping yard’ that NMF has created bang in the middle of a residential area.  Officials of Neel Metal Fanalca too accept their part in the stinky mess. “We have but few months to go before our contract expires. We are not being given money to fix the garbage trucks that need repair. We are not being given enough people to carry out those duties. This is the most we can do. We are actively being lent a helping hand by the Corporation, but we are still falling short,” said a senior official of NMF. But residents of the city are in no mood to listen to the excuses put forth by the officials. “This is a residential locality. NMF is supposed to clear the garbage from here. But they are bringing garbage from elsewhere and are dumping it here,” says Venkataraman, a resident of South Avenue.  Also affected by NMF’s mess are the residents of a slum, the entrance to which is strewn with the garbage that NMF was supposed to take to a proper dump yard. “As you can see, we live in a slum. Hygiene is already problem. On top of it, diseases are being given a helping hand by the Corporation. Just wait and watch, the elections are around the corner,” said Jayanthi, as she shooed her three-year-old son away from the pile of garbage.