Locate biomedical waste disposal facility in sparsely populated area, Durai Vaiko urges CM

Expressing solidarity with villagers protesting against the proposed common biomedical waste treatment facility at Pisanathur village near Gandharvakottai in Pudukottai district, Tiruchi Member of Parliament Durai Vaiko has appealed to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to order the establishment of the plant at a sparsely populated site.

Expressing apprehensions that the plant would cause air and water pollution in the locality, local residents and farmers had been staging agitations against the plant in recent months.

On Saturday, Mr. Durai Vaiko met the villagers who have been staging a sit-in protest over the past 29 days and assured them that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister and Minister for Finance and Environment Climate Change Thangam Thennarasu.

Mr. Durai Vaiko said that the proposed facility by a private firm was meant to process bio-medical waste from eight districts. Although it was being established with the good objective of safely disposing medical waste, it was unfortunate that it was planned to be located in a thickly populated place surrounded by agricultural fields and water sources in his Lok Sabha constituency. There were apprehensions that incineration of the waste at the unit could pollute the environment in a 30-km radius, he said.

Although it had been assured that an effluent treatment plant and continuous emission monitoring system would be established, shortcomings in maintenance or equipment failures could still cause pollution and affect the people’s health. Hence, it was essential that an alternative site in a sparsely populated area was identified for locating the unit, he said.

Mr. Durai Vaiko later met District Collector M. Aruna and presented a petition on the issue.