Anilkumar T By Express News Service KOCHI: Day-to-day garbage collection in several parts of the district will come to a grinding halt for over a week as the local body authorities are struggling to deploy contingent workers due to the complete lockdown following the outbreak of Covid-19. According to the local body authorities, most of the contingent workers who are coming from faraway places are not able to report for work due to the complete shutdown of transportation. With the local bodies stopping waste collection, heaps of waste have started accumulating on the road side triggering the fear of an epidemic outbreak. The local bodies such as Kochi Corporation, Kalamassery Municipality, Thrikkakara Municipality, Tripunithura Municipality and Eloor Municipality are the worst hit with the contingent workers staying away from the garbage disposal. The Kochi Corporation, where at least 80 to 90 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste is being treated every day, seems to be clueless on clearing the waste. “As many as 1,500 contingent workers are engaged in handling waste in the city, but many of them are coming from faraway places to the city. Some of them are from Aroor and other distant places. It would be difficult for them as there are no means of transportation,” said Mayor Soumini Jain when asked about the garbage movement in the city. The mayor also added that they are working on a solution to resolve the issue. “Those who can come by their private vehicles will be deployed to collect waste. Instead of daily collection, we are planning to take the garbage every alternate day or once in three days. Area-wise collection will be possible at this juncture. The public should also understand the grave situation that we all are going through. Dumping of waste in public places should be avoided,” said Soumini. Meanwhile, the situation at Tripunithura Municipality has turned worse with the municipality restricting the waste collection to urban areas. “Waste collection from rural parts of the municipality stopped two days ago. The corona scare and the lack of a labour force resulted in such a situation. We are doing the waste collection with limited staff,” said Chandrika Devi, Tripunithura municipal chairperson. In Maradu municipality, where only plastic waste is collected from the public, that too has been temporarily put on hold for the past 10 days. “We asked the health workers to stop plastic waste collection for some days. An instruction has already been given to the public to keep the plastic waste at home itself,” said Boban Nedumparambil, vice-chairman, Maradu Municipality. Meanwhile, the district panchayat has decided to approach the district collector to deal with the issue of clearing the waste dumped in public places. “In Kakkanad too, waste is dumped by the wayside. A meeting with District Collector S Suhas will be convened within two days to resolve the issues. An immediate action plan has to be formulated with the support of the public,” said Abdul Muthaib, district vice-president.

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