Vilappil residents stir in city

Once again, the people of Vilappil, led by their panchayat members, will take to the main street of Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday against the Government move to allow the City Corporation to transport machinery to the Vilappilsala waste treatment plant.

 An informal meeting of the panchayat officials with Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali on Tuesday morning could not convince the former to have a rethink on the mass agitation planned. ‘’The Minister said that since the Chief Minister had promised that no garbage trucks would enter Vilappil, it will be so. But, we are not convinced. We are sure that once we agree to transporting machinery, the Government will say the plant is foolproof, so there would be no problem if garbage is transported,’’ said Vilappil panchayat president S Shobhana Kumari.

 According to her, the agitation will be attended by representatives of all parties and religious outfits, local people, including women and children, and the Samyukta Samara Samithi leaders. ‘’There will be more than 10,000 people and we shall demonstrate our will to stop any wrong move against our panchayat,’’ Shobhana said.

 The march will start from Palayam Martyrs’ Square at 11 am and will assemble in front of the Secretariat, where the meeting will be inaugurated by leaders of the Samyukta Samara Samithi.

 Asked whether this would be a breach of the court order since it was the High Court which had asked the Government to come clean on the transportation date and to provide police protection to the City Corporation to do so, the panchayat officials said they were not against the Court, it was only a fight to survive.

 The City Corporation had moved the Court seeking police protection to transport machinery - which has been lying idle in the garage for the last several months, threatening to rust - to the waste treatment plant to complete the construction of the leachate treatment plant there. However, the panchayat fears that if the leachate treatment plant gets functional, there would be no stopping the officials transporting garbage too. Already, the Corporation has spent ` 2 crore on setting up the leachate treatment plant under a JNNURM project.

 The Samukta Samara Samithi has also called a dawn to dusk hartal in Vilappil panchayat on Wednesday.