Citizen Connect-Disused but not discarded: Old garbage bins not removed despite replacements

Even though the residents want to move the bins away, they are not able to, as the older bins that have been discarded are yet to be removed from the spot. “At the junction of Kambar and Valluvar streets, a garbage bin had been placed almost in middle of the road. The motorists who come from CTH Road and take a left to reach the Station Road stand the risk of ramming into it. It is more dangerous in the night hours due to the absence of street lights,” said Vignesh, one of the residents of the locality.

On days when the garbage is not cleared, the bin would overflow with waste, emanating a foul smell. “After we took up the issue with civic authorities, they removed the new bin instead of the discarded one. Now the garbage is dumped on the road itself,” he added.

There are at least at four places on the stretch where the new garbage bins are placed but without removing the old ones. “Residents throw waste into both old and new bins, but trucks clear the waste dumped only in the new bins. So, the remaining waste lie there for days together,” said V Venkatesan, a resident of Sivasakthi Nagar, Annanur.

According to him, while conservancy workers from Avadi Municipal Corporation refuse to collect waste from households unless they are source segregated, all these are dumped together in one bin, making the segregation at source meaningless. “Also, most of the waste collected from Sivasakthi Nagar and Saraswathi Nagar are dumped and burnt in ponds in the locality. There is no proper overseeing of how waste is cleared,” Venkatesan added.

Sampath Kumar, secretary of Sivasakthi Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association, said that if the 60-feet road was properly laid, all other problems would get addressed. “At least three wards in the locality do not have roads. Roads should be laid before the onset of monsoon to avoid road accidents. If the elections for local bodies had been conducted on time, we would have people’s representatives to report about such issues. But now, we have to wait for the mercy of officials,” he said.