The State Government on Monday sought more time to file an affidavit regarding the steps taken to comply with the court directive to provide police protection for transporting equipment to the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant for constructing a leachate plant.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A M Shaffique adjourned the hearing of the case to October 8. The court issued the directive when a petition filed by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation seeking police protection came up for hearing. The State Government submitted that it needed time to find a solution to the Vilappilsala imbroglio.
The court had earlier directed the DGP to provide police protection to officials of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation for transporting machinery needed for construction of the leachate treatment unit at Vilappilsala until it was ready for operation.
However, the local people had waylaid the convoy by blocking the road and the crowd set fire to logs and furniture in the middle of the road. The police resorted to lathi-charge and water cannons to scatter the slogan-shouting men and women.
Later, the court had flayed the police for the riot situation in Vilappilsala and the failure to offer adequate protection to the Corporation for moving machinery to the plant.
Meanwhile, one Jnanadas and other residents of Vilappil filed an application to get impleaded in the police protection petition filed by the
Corporation. Counsel for the petitioners Kaleeswaram Raj submitted that police protection should not be granted for an unlawful activity of the Corporation.
The selection of the site for the plant was in violation of the provisions in the Municipal Solid Waste Rule Schedule 3.
The Rule suggested that the landfill site shall be far from habitation clusters, forests, water bodies, monuments, national parks, wetlands and places of important cultural, historical or religious interest. So, setting up of a waste treatment plant in residential area was illegal, he said.
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