8,000 residents join hands in protest against waste plant in Kodungaiyur
The 4.5km-long protest extended from Sivasakthi Amman Temple in Ezhil Nagar, Kodungaiyur, to the Dr Ambedkar Government Arts College signal in Vyasarpadi.
As part of the protest, residents also signed a declaration urging the government to uphold Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life), citing threat to public health due to toxins, dioxins and furans that may be released by the plant. GCC councillors from CPI, CPIM, MDMK, INC, and VCK, and Dr S Janakarajan (president, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies), Carnatic vocalist and activist T M Krishna, and others joined the protest.
In Kodungaiyur, 352 acres of land is currently being used for waste dumping. GCC is currently carrying out biomining operations at the site, processing 2,000 tonnes of legacy waste every day. It has now proposed to establish a WTE plant to burn 2,100 tonnes of waste daily.
However, the residents of North Chennai have been opposing the WTE plant, stating that the area is already overburdened with pollution from numerous chemical industries. Protesters have also urged the GCC to reclaim the landfill through biomining and develop public amenities in the reclaimed land.
T K Shanmugam, FNCRWA president, said, 'The firm chosen for the Kodungaiyur WTE project runs a similar plant in Hyderabad, where residents reported skin diseases, infertility, and groundwater contamination due to the release of toxic pollutants from the plant. In Paris, too, studies found dangerous dioxin levels in farm eggs near a similar plant. This project is a public health hazard and must be withdrawn.'
AIADMK to stage protest on June 2 in Chennai
CHENNAI: AIADMK cadres will stage a demonstration in zone 4 of the Chennai Corporation on June 2, urging the Tamil Nadu government to drop the proposed waste-to-energy plant at Kodungaiyur dump yard as it would make North Chennai a 'poisonous place'.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a statement, said the incineration of waste at the dump yard leads to the area being engulfed in smoke every day, severely affecting the residents and people who pass through the locality.
Palaniswami said the demonstration is also to urge the state government to complete quickly the crematorium work in Kodungaiyur and flyover project on Manali Road in Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar.
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