Residents' bodies welcome Thiruvananthapuram corporation's waste plan

Thiruvananthapuram: Residents’ associations are looking forward to their role in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation’s waste management programme. All residents’ associations, including apartment complexes, can register under a health circle from Saturday onwards, and be part of the programme. Though it is only connected with waste management, the associations are hopeful of a larger role in which they would take part in every development-related planning.

FRAT Patron Paraniyam Devakumar said, “We welcome the decision to involve residents’ associations in the waste management activities. Former Mayor V. Sivakutty had a similar registration programme for residents’ associations, in which they were made a part of ward committees. However, later it was pushed into oblivion. We see this as an effort to revive the involvement of residents’ associations in development activities.”

Corporation’s decision to involve residents’ associations must have sprung from the way waste management activities panned out in the city, according to waste management service providers. Sugathan Sivadasan, director of a service provider called ‘Haritha Gramam’, said, “Initially we launched awareness campaigns in wards. But it was after the residents’ associations there got interested that the campaign gained traction. Linking the residents’ associations with kitchen bin programmes is more effective.”