Garbage has to be cleared every 24 hours in Chennai
	It is interesting to note that Local Administration Minister K P Munusamy has ordered that garbage in bins or street corners have to be cleared within 24 hours of it being dumped. Earlier also such orders were made by Minsters. But no solid action has been initiated so far. I hope that at least henceforth the Minister will monitor whether his orders have been implemented properly. Municipal solid waste (garbage) management is an obligatory function of the urban local governments. And this is one service that remains a major problem for urban centers of all sizes. The per capita waste generation has a positive correlation to the size class of urban centers i.e. the larger the urban center the more the waste generated. Garbage disposal has become a serious problem in the cities and/towns all over the world. The main method of waste disposal continues to be open dumping in most urban centers. While many urban centers have landfill sites, not all dispose their waste in these landfill sites as sometimes the sites are far away from the city and the transportation costs become prohibitive. Therefore, waste is dumped in some low-lying areas or disposed off just outside the city periphery. Moreover, hospital waste, though should be collected separately, is collected in a combined manner in a majority of urban centers, including some of the metropolitan cities In the urban areas, some arrangements usually exist to carry away the refuse and waste of households to some dumping place away from the residential areas. In some places, the public bodies collect the garbage from the premises of the household or from some fixed points in the locality where the residents put their away from residential areas without participation of any public body. In some places, a body of residents themselves makes the arrangement of carrying the garbage to the dumping place till the final disposal. Dr.C.Murukadas, The Times of India, July 26,2012