Pernambut Muslim councillor stages sit-in for garbage removal

VELLORE: A lone Muslim woman councillor staging a sit in on the steps of the Pernambut municipal office on Tuesday afternoon raised eyebrows all the more so as she belonged to the DMK, sources said.

The immediate reason for the dharna was the alleged non-removal of garbage from ward 7 represented by woman councilor Shakira Meeranji Saleem.

Stating that repeated representations to municipal officials failed to have any effect, she staged the sit in and was supported by Congress councillor Mujamil Ahamed.

As none in the municipal office took notice of Shakira when she came there around 3.30 pm, she staged the dharna resulting in vice chairman Aliyar Zubair Ahamed rushing to the spot and requesting her to come inside for discussions. Shakira refused and hence the sit in continued till Commissioner Subhashini, who was out on a tax collection drive, arrived and promised to do the needful once work on the site located for a garbage dump was completed in a week.

However, discreet enquiries revealed that the agitation was to pressurise the commissioner from sealing shops which had rent arrears going back years. “The sealing of a shop which had arrears for 18 years was the immediate reason for councillors of a community banding together,” sources said.

“The act was meant to warn local body officials against attempting to collect arrears and to let things stand,” sources added.

Though the municipality was dumping garbage on private land at Palalakuppam some distance from the town for years, the owner was instigated to ask the local body to vacate the premises and so while moves were afoot to find their own garbage yard, the local body used abandoned, dilapidated houses and wells to dump garbage, sources alleged.

However, “officials refusing to relent and working on deepening a selected garbage site to ensure garbage segregation has put elected representatives on the back foot as they now realise that they will have to pay up pending arrears, an official seeking anonymity said.