Coimbatore: The sprawling Vellalore dump yard has turned into a den of anti-socials and waste pickers, who smuggle away valuables from the waste mounds at night.
From discarded slippers to plastic items and iron particles, the rag pickers scour the garbage heap and lorry-loads and such items are smuggled out of the dump yard everyday, complain local residents.
Spread over a whopping 650 acres of land, the Vellalore dump yard is protected by a seven-ft compound wall. And the corporation has closed all the entry gates to the dump yard, except the main gate and the entry from the rapid action force quarters’ entrance. The corporation has beefed up the security at the dump yard with 15 security guards. However, the security and the compound wall notwithstanding, anti-social elements and rag pickers have a field day at the dump yard. Anti-social elements and the security guards work hand in glove to scour the garbage heap for valuables, say local residents.
“The security guards get bribe from rag pickers and allow them into the yard. They collect valuable items such as iron particles, plastic items and rubber slippers. Mostly these items are loaded in carriage autos and smuggled at late nights and sold to shops in Podanur,” said Chandra Sekar, treasurer of ‘Movement against Vellalore dump yard’.
Besides, anti-socials also enter dump yard and indulge in fights, disturbing the peace of the local residents, he charged.
With many families vacating their houses in Vellalore, the anti-social elements use these vacant houses as hideouts during the day and operate at night inside the dump yard. “So people residing near the dump yard fear to venture out after 6 pm," says a resident of Mahalingam Nagar.
When contacted, corporation assistant executive engineer Saravanakumar, who is in charge of dump yard operation, said, “Security is very tight at dump yard site. The recycling plant is under construction. When the work is over, we will stop the open dumping of waste which reduces the rag pickers’ movement at dump yard.”
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