NGT asks Kerala to remove waste dumped in Tamil Nadu in 3 days

Chennai: Four days after biomedical and plastic waste from Kerala were dumped at multiple locations in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday directed the neighbouring state to remove waste of all types within three days. If the waste cannot be taken back to the state, the Kerala government should arrange to get them treated in any authorised treatment facilities, the southern bench of the NGT said.

The bench of Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal K asked the Kerala State Pollution Control Board to file their action taken report, while posting the matter for December 23.

The NGT took suo motu cognizance of reports of biomedical and plastic waste, including medical records of patients generated from the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Kodaganallur and Palavoor villages.

Waste from Kerala being dumped in many villages across the state border in Tamil Nadu in districts like Theni, Kanyakumari, Tenkasi, and Tirunelveli has been a recurring affair, despite land owners filing police complaints and taking objection to such a move.

The bench said the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) on Wednesday wrote to the Kerala anti-pollution watchdog to initiate necessary legal action against the Regional Cancer Centre for illegal transportation and dumping of the mixed solid waste/biomedical waste into Tamil Nadu. The TNPCB also sought action against The Leela Kovalam, for illegal transportation and also to monitor the border areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to prevent any future illegal transportation of the waste.

After the counsel representing Tamil Nadu insisted that it was the responsibility of the Kerala government to remove the same and treat the same, even as the neighbouring state maintained that the dumping could have been by unauthorized waste collectors from Kerala.

“…it would be appropriate for the Government of Kerala to remove the waste of all nature dumped inside Tamil Nadu forthwith and either take it to the State of Kerala or arrange to get them treated in any authorized treatment facilities,” the bench said in its order.

The latest dumping of waste in Kodaganallur and Palavoor villages in Tirunelveli district had caught political attention with the state BJP threatening to launch a protest in the New Year by carrying the “waste” back to Kerala if no action was taken by the state government.

Locals said institutions from Kerala have started dumping heaps of waste, particularly biomedical waste without burning them in vacant lands. They suspect that lorries that come from Kerala to carry loads from a near-by paper mill bring these waste and dump them in villages.