Citizen Connect: Kottivakkam residents peeved as workers dump waste from shops into garbage bins near homes

AGS colony at Kottivakkam is supposed to be a posh locality with well-paved roads with the beach on one side and East Coast Road on the other. However, like every other part of the city, garbage remains a menace for the residents of Kottivakkam as well. 

As much as the bigger restaurants, hotels and other commercial establishments, roadside eateries and tea shops have also mushroomed along Karunanidhi Beach Road of late.

Conservancy workers are supposed to collect the garbage from narrow streets where bigger trucks cannot directly enter to collect waste. However, what happens in Kottivakkam is on the reverse, complain residents.

"The garbage generated from these shops are not cleared properly. To make things worse, conservancy workers collecting the garbage from roadside dump them in the bins kept among the residences," said Bhuvana Shankar, one of the residents, of the locality.

According to the residents, trucks collecting garbage from the bins visit the locality only twice a week and the unreasonable dumping of waste in the residential area results in the bins overflowing every day and waste being spread all over the street.

"First off, the practice brings the traffic to a standstill at avenues at a time when schoolchildren rush to school in the morning hours. 

Secondly, it poses a great health risk as the uncleared garbage makes it a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed. There are schools nearby but authorities concerned seem to have not bothered. 

At least three persons from the same street have fallen sick. We have taken it up with officials, but it did not yield any reaction," said another resident.

Conservancy workers, when confronted by the residents, allegedly said that they do as their supervisor asked them to.

When contacted, Thyagarajan, conservancy inspector for Kottivakkam locality, said that he would look into the issue and make alternative arrangements. According to him, there are not enough garbage bins, resulting in such practices as most of them have worn out over the years.