THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After an eventful day of agitation on Monday, Vilappilsala is slowly returning to normal. But the peaceful state of affairs may not last long as leaders of the agitating Vilappilsala Samara Samithi have asked the City Corporation to purge the treatment plant of the garbage remaining there. They have also demanded that criminal cases should be registered against the Corporation officials and the company which built the plant. Vilappilsala Samara Samithi leader S Burhan said that the Corporation was liable to clean the plant of garbage and also to provide compensation for the Vilappilsala community. ‘’There is no doubt that they should pay compensation and take away the garbage lying unprocessed in the plant. We will wait for a while and then give a deadline to remove the garbage. Criminal cases should be registered against the Corporation officials and the concerned company which built the plant,” he said. The Corporation, on the other hand, seems to be irked by the whole proceedings, saying that the police were acting too soft. Mayor K Chandrika said that the Corporation would inform the High Court of all that happened at Vilappilsala. “Everything that happened was politically motivated. Revenue land is not available for burying the garbage. The Chief Minister asked me to take the two waste-laden lorries, which were not able to enter the plant. Practically, we have no options to deal with the situation,” she said. The Police Department, the third concerned party and a respondent in the case, has already made it clear that it would deploy forces to Vilappilsala once again, if the Corporation asks it to do so. “We know that a people’s movement is going on there. But we also have to take care of the Court order. A far as the Police Department is concerned, we are ready to act when the establishment wants us to act,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, the situation in the area was peaceful on Tuesday, except for a few hours in the morning, when the supporters of the hartal called by the Congress party alleging police excesses against one of their leaders bullied the shop owners of the area to close their shops. This demand was brushed aside by the agitating Samithi leaders, who made it clear that they would not allow parties to hijack the agitation for political mileage. Meanwhile, the prohibitory orders issued under Section 144 in Vilappilsala and two wards of the nearby Vilavoorkal panchayat are still in force.
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