KOLLAM: Even as the Kollam Corporation remains locked in a stalemate with the residents of Kureepuzha over the garbage treatment plant for almost a year, it also seems to be at loggerheads with the construction agency of the plant, Jamshedpur Utility and Services Company Limited (JUSCO).While JUSCO, a Tata enterprise, blames the Corporation for making a grave mistake in choosing an inhabited area for the plant, the Corporation maintains that the standoff with the residents sparked off due to the delay caused by JUSCO in the construction of the Leachate Treatment Plant.Chief of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) wing of JUSCO K Arun told Express over phone that Kollam Corporation has to be blamed for the issues that has propped up as it chose the wrong site for the plant.“The Leachate Treatment Plant should not be constructed in an inhabited area.The leachate is the liquid that seeps from a landfill and can contain highly toxic components,” he said.Terming that the public was right in the Kureepuzha Plant issue, Arun said that due to the mistake made by the Corporation, JUSCO was also suffering.“Only 60 percent of the amount has been paid and a payment of Rs 1.75 crore has been delayed for the past one-and-a-half years.We are on the receiving end due to the delay caused to complete the construction, as the price of materials and labour costs are increasing.We have called back our site engineers too due to the delay,” he said.Meanwhile, Mayor Prasanna Earnest blamed JUSCO for the delay in the construction of the Leachate Treatment Plant.(The agreement with the JUSCO involved construction of an engineered sanitary landfill facility, electromechanical compost plant and establishment of a leachate treatment plant.The plant was commissioned after constructing the landfill facility and compost plant on July 29, 2010.) “After commissioning the plant, JUSCO delayed the construction of the leachate treatment plant for over a year, citing non-availability of raw materials.As a result, the garbage brought to the plant remained unprocessed, which led to the residents’ agitation,” she said.Corporation suffered another major setback due to the delay with the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules being notified in January 2011.The protestors raised objection against the leachate plant, which was to be constructed near the bank of the Ashtamudi Lake, citing the CRZ rules and they moved the High Court against it.This forced the Corporation to identify another site and couple of alternative sites identified by the Corporation too drew flak from the protestors.“Forty five cents of land in front of the plant had been identified and the plant would be constructed based on the directives of the Pollution Control Board,” the Mayor said, adding that the Corporation was determined to begin the operations of the plant at the earliest.
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