Kodungaiyur Garbage issue: Mayor promises action

CHENNAI: Highlighting the problem faced by residents of north Chennai because of garbage dumping at Kodungaiyur yard, Perambur MLA A Soundararajan on Friday appealed to Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy to redress the issue immediately.Addressing councillors during the monthly Council meet here at Ripon Building, Soundararajan said, “People living in and around Kodungaiyur are suffocating due to the stench emanating from the yard where there is indiscriminate dumping of garbage. An immediate solution would help them.”While promising a permanent solution to the issue within a year, Duraisamy said that the dumping activities at Kodungaiyur were on even before the arrival of residential areas near it.However, Soundararajan immediately intervened and asserted that facts have to be recorded correctly in the House and the fact is that the dumping activities (at Kodungaiyur) had began in 1982 only while residential colonies in the area were in existence since 1972.Reacting to the MLA’s rebuttal, Duraisamy assured Soundararajan that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has more concerns for the Kodungaiyur people than him and the issue would be redressed accordingly. He also invited the MLA to attend the next Council meeting, where garbage-related issues would be debated thoroughly. The MLA also raised the issue of frequent burning of garbage inside the yard and the Mayor quickly promised to look into it.