Corporation officials seizing banned plastic products from a shop in Tirunelveli junction on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGMENT
The manpower-starved Corporation, which has outsourced its sanitary operations to a few self-help groups and a private agency, has started enforcing strictly the garbage segregation at source in a bid to streamline its operations further.The Corporation, having permanent sanitary workers’ strength of just 290, has to collect everyday anywhere between 150 and 170 tonnes of degradable and non-degradable garbage from 1.20 lakh-odd households and a few thousand commercial establishments in the four zones – Tirunelveli, Thatchanallur, Palayamkottai and Melapalayam. Hence, the urban civic body has outsourced this task to a few self-help groups with 753 workers and a private agency with 530 workers, which is facing a barrage of charges of poor service from the public and even the Councillors.While the private agency hired by neighbouring Thoothukudi Corporation collect the garbage from the residences everyday before 8 a.m., the private firm hand-picked by the Tirunelveli Corporation does this task only on alternate days. Considering the workload, the Corporation has asked the bigger commercial establishments like textile showrooms and the supermarkets to handover separately the discarded packaging materials instead of handing it over to the sanitary workers so that the recyclable and non-recyclable garbage getting generated in these business houses in huge quantity will not badly affect the segregation of other garbage being collected from the houses.Now, the residents have been instructed to handover the garbage to the sanitary workers only after segregating the waste in their places itself into degradable, non-degradable, wet and special care hazardous waste.As per this instruction, wet waste like vegetable, food, dry leaves, flowers, coconut shell, egg shell, tea, coffee, garden waste, meat wast etc., dry non-recyclable wastes such as plastic bottles, plastic covers, metal waste, tetra packs, sanitary wastes like cotton, used syringes, sanitary pads, tampons, bandages etc. and hazardous waste viz. old batteries, blades, razors, expired medicines, electrical waste, glasses, paints, chemicals etc. should be handed over separately to the visiting sanitary workers.“This practice will make garbage collection and solid waste management easier for the Corporation. Hence, the residents and the commercial establishments have been asked to strictly follow this dictum. The sanitary workers will refuse to accept the waste if the garbage is not separated when it is handed over,” said the Corporation officials.When a private lodge and another private commercial establishment were found to be discarding their waste, particularly non-degradable plastic waste, in the storm water drains, the Corporation officials slapped a fine of ₹10,000 each on them on Thursday.Another private firm in Vannarpet, which has to pay the Corporation a huge sum towards fee for collecting its garbage, ₹2.14 lakh was slapped as garbage collection charges and fine on Thursday. The private firm paid the amount immediately.The surprise raid conducted by the Corporation personnel in a few shops along T.M. Road in Tirunelveli Junction led to the seizure of banned plastic bags. Two violators were fined ₹5,000 each. Published - September 10, 2026 07:00 pm IST
