Chennai: Not COVID-19 but garbage removal is the biggest concern for the residents – Times Now

Chennai: Although COVID-19 outbreak has created panic all around the world,  the people of Chennai don’t consider this as the biggest civic grievance. The official data of the Chennai Corporation revealed that the highest number of grievances which the Corporation received was related to garbage removal. According to Chennaites, COVID-19 infection is the fifth most important.

The city has been reeling under these top 5 problems in the year 2020 (From January 1- August 10)- removal of Garbage, dysfunctional streetlights, dog menace, mosquito menace and related to public health.

Although there has been no reduction in the number of complaints made as compared to previous years related to garbage removal, the residents often say that the redressal is slow. The civic body responds to this by saying that the corporation is busy with COVID duty now.

Complaints since 2018

The corporation has been receiving complaints regularly. According to the data mentioned in the Times of India, in the past eight months, 65, 675 complaints have been received. The corporation received 1.49 lakh and 1.70 lakh complaints in the year 2018 and 2019 respectively. In the year 2020, the total number of complaints stand at 11,531. The residents have also complained about absenteeism of sweepers and irregular door-to-door garbage collection as well.

“There is a lot of fear among residents and they have begun dumping garbage in unused grounds. Those who segregated waste earlier are not doing so now. This would be rectified once the Spanish firm, Urbaser, takes over in September. There will be a lot of changes in the entire garbage collection and disposal system and everything would be sure streamlined. Community intervention and awareness activities to ensure people segregate waste will be done,” said N Mahesan, chief engineer for solid waste management.

According to Deputy Commissioner, works, Kumaravel Pandian, he says that every grievance is attended within 6-12 hours. Also, the status of the grievance is reviewed weekly to ensure there are no backlogs left.

Residents raising issues

The residents have been raising the issue through mobile applications, phone number 1913 and emails. These residents generally belong to Kodambakkam, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Royapuram and Adyar zones. Also, the residents of other zones like  Ambattur, Perungudi rely on local officials more.

According to TOI, Satish G of OMR mentions that the redressal system has improved where the city has been witnessing the same problem over the years. He also says that “Features available on the website aren’t there on the app, such as checking death or birth certificates. The civic body should update the app.”

As monsoon is around the corner, garbage maintenance will play a crucial role for the residents to curb the spread of dengue. According to a resident, she mentions that earlier the issues were resolved within a day. However, the time take to resolve an issue has gone up by three weeks as the corporations say that they are busy with COVID work.