8,000 residents join hands in protest against waste plant in Kodungaiyur
CHENNAI: More than 8,000 residents, led by the Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Association (FNCRWA), organised a human chain protest on Sunday against the proposed waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Kodungaiyur, citing fears of pollution and long-term health risks.
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 This project is a public health hazard and must be withdrawn.'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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
21 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘Equality and representation go hand in hand': CJI Bhushan R Gavai
Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai on Tuesday said the true strength of Indian democracy lies in its ability to continuously evolve while revisiting and redefining the idea of representation, even 75 years after the Constitution came into force. During his address at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom, he emphasised that equality and representation are not competing ideals but complementary forces that drive India's constitutional vision forward. CJI Gavai asserted that representation and equality are not opposing ideals. 'Rather, they reinforce each other,' said the judge, as he drew on landmark Indian Supreme Court judgments and the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar to underscore how the Constitution remains a living document aimed at dismantling entrenched hierarchies. Justice Gavai, the 52nd CJI and only the second dalit to hold the highest judicial office in India, made a compelling case for substantive equality — a model that goes beyond formal equality to correct historical disadvantages. Citing the previous apex court's decisions, he maintained that affirmative action is integral to equality under the Constitution and added that over the decades, the idea of representation has evolved through mechanisms such as reservations in promotions, age and eligibility relaxations, and targeted scholarships. The CJI noted how this idea was extended in rulings such as NALSA Vs Union of India (2014), which recognised the rights of transgender persons and mandated their inclusion through reservations, and the 2020 judgment granting permanent commission to women in the Indian armed forces. 'In several other decisions, the Supreme Court has also emphasised the need for reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities, ensuring their meaningful participation in society and their integration into governance and institutional frameworks,' he said. Speaking just months after Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to reserve seats for women in legislatures, and the apex court upheld subclassification within Scheduled Caste quotas, Justice Gavai framed these developments as evidence of a constitutional project in motion that is responsive to evolving ideas of justice. 'The Constitution of India carries within it the heartbeat of those who were never meant to be compels the State not only to protect rights but to actively uplift, to affirm, to repair,' he asserted . Citing Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's seminal essay 'Can the Subaltern Speak?', the CJI remarked: 'Yes, the subaltern can speak — and they have been speaking all along. The question is no longer whether they can speak, but whether society is truly listening.'
Hindustan Times
27 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Constitution is quiet revolution empowering marginalised: CJI Gavai
New Delhi, Chief Justice of India B R Gavai has described the Constitution as a "quiet revolution etched in ink" and a transformative force that not only guarantees rights but actively uplifts the historically oppressed. Speaking at the Oxford Union on the theme 'From Representation to Realisation: Embodying the Constitution's Promise' on Tuesday, the CJI, the second Dalit and the first Buddhist to hold India's highest judicial office, highlighted the positive impact of the Constitution on marginalised communities and gave his example to drive home the point. "Many decades ago, millions of citizens of India were called 'untouchables'. They were told they were impure. They were told that they did not belong. They were told that they could not speak for themselves. But here we are today, where a person belonging to those very people is speaking openly, as the holder of the highest office in the judiciary of the country," the CJI said. He said the Constitution told the citizens that "they belong, that they can speak for themselves, and that they have an equal place in every sphere of society and power". "At the Oxford Union today, I stand before you to say for India's most vulnerable citizens, the Constitution is not merely a legal charter or a political framework, it is a feeling, a lifeline, a quiet revolution etched in ink. In my own journey, from a municipal school to the office of the Chief Justice of India, it has been a guiding force," he said. He said India's Constitution was not merely a legal framework but a social and moral document crafted amidst deep inequality. Its drafters, he noted, included representatives from some of the most marginalised communities in India Dalits, Adivasis, women, religious minorities, persons with disabilities, and even those formerly labelled "criminal tribes". "The Constitution is a social document, one that does not avert its gaze from the brutal truths of caste, poverty, exclusion, and injustice. It does not pretend that all are equal in a land scarred by deep inequality. Instead, it dares to intervene, to rewrite the script, to recalibrate power, and to restore dignity," he said. The CJI said the Constitution carries within it the "heartbeat of those who were never meant to be heard, and the vision of a country where equality is not just promised, but pursued". "It compels the State not only to protect rights but to actively uplift, to affirm, to repair," he added. Referring to B R Ambedkar's legacy, the CJI said he was a visionary who transformed his lived experience of caste discrimination into a global understanding of justice. "He believed that democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy," CJI Gavai said, quoting Ambedkar's historic 1949 Constituent Assembly speech. The CJI said that Ambedkar saw political representation as a necessary check against entrenched caste hierarchies and arbitrary power, a mechanism to redistribute not just institutional power, but social dignity. "In an unequal society, he believed, democracy cannot survive unless power is also divided among communities, not just among institutions. Representation, therefore, was a mechanism of redistributing power, not only between the legislature, executive, and judiciary, but among social groups that had been denied a share for centuries," he said. The CJI highlighted the evolution of affirmative action in India and said initially it was through quotas in legislatures, government jobs, and educational institutions, and later expanded through judicial interpretation and legislative reform. Referring to landmark Supreme Court judgements, including the Mandal reservation verdict, he said they reaffirmed that affirmative action was not a contradiction of equality but a realisation of its spirit. "The Constitution imposes a duty of care on the State," CJI Gavai said, invoking constitutional scholar Upendra Baxi, "to achieve equality both in letter and in spirit". He also referred to the 2014 NALSA judgement recognising transgender rights, the 2020 decision allowing permanent commissions for women in the armed forces, and judicial mandates for reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. The CJI also talked about the 2023 constitutional amendment guaranteeing political reservations for women and the Supreme Court's endorsement of sub-classification within Scheduled Castes to ensure intra-group equity. "The true beauty of Indian democracy lies in this: even as we commemorate 75 years of the Constitution, we continue to reflect, renew, and reimagine how to deepen and expand the meaning of representation. Just last year, Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to provide political reservations for women in Parliament and state legislatures," he said.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Kapil Sibal alleges bias in handling of Justices Varma, Yadav cases
New Delhi: Independent MP and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal has alleged "discrimination" in the attitude of Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for citing information which is "in public domain" to write to the Chief Justice of India, through the RS Secretariat, to halt the (judiciary's) in-house proceedings against Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav , who is facing charges of hate speech. However, Sibal alleged that the same stance has not been applied by the Chairman in the case of Justice Yashwant Varma , in the 'currency seizure' case. Sibal warned the government of opposition if an attempt is made to impeach Justice Varma on the basis of the 'in-house proceedings' (SC-appointed panel) report, saying such a course will be tantamount to by-passing the proceedings of the Judges Inquiry Act (of conducting an independent panel's inquiry into the charges in impeachment motion) and would thus be in violation of the Constitution besides endangering the independence of the judiciary . by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Mundfalten "bügeln" mit TV-Tipp (Löwen) | bedrop Undo Addressing mediapersons on Tuesday, Sibal wondered why the government was trying to "save" Justice Yadav and asked why the RS Chairman and secretariat have not yet completed the process of verification of the pending impeachment motion signed by 55 Opposition MPs even six months after its submission.
