CHENNAI: At a time when the Chennai Corporation is trying to get its act right with garbage collection and disposal, Kaanum Pongal was always expected to be a challenge. Crowds that throng the beach during this festival tend to leave behind huge piles of garbage that usually take days to be cleaned up. But the Corportion seems to have gotten things under control this year around.Corporation officials were on the move from the early hours of Wednesday, overseeing the clean-up operations of the beaches and the roads leading to them, along the Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur and Kottivakkam stretch.“There is a lot less garbage this year than we expected. Over the past few years, we have seen Kaanum Pongal crowds shifting from Marina Beach to beaches along the city’s southern reaches. But even by the standards of the crowds this year, the garbage is low,” said a Corporation official.By noon, the roads along the beach looked cleaner than they have been in months. But while the Thiruvanmiyur beach had been picked clean of all the wrappers and waste thrown by the Kaanum Pongal revellers, Besant Nagar was a mess.Ice cream wrappers and other sundry garbage constituted a large part of the waste left behind after Pongal rites. Rag pickers were seen sifting through the garbage in the sands, bagging whatever recyclable material they were able to find. In fact, the Elliot’s Beach was still littered with garbage washed ashore by cyclone Thane. This mess, combined with the massive amounts of Kaanum Pongal wastes made the beach a truly hideous sight. Corporation officials said they were working all out to clear the garbage and that they would need time to clear such a large area. Only then, they said, they would be able to turn their attention to garbage along the inner roads in the area.
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