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        Villagers living near the Gummidipoondi SIPCOT industrial complex today stormed the project site of Tamilnadu Waste Management Ltd's hazardous waste landfill and incinerator and stopped work.

        Villagers fear that the ground water in the area would be affected and cause diseases as a result of the setting up of the landfill.

        Construction was being carried out without permission from the local body and against the wishes of local residents, SR Kandigai Panchayat president T Rosepillai said.

        About 90 per cent of the people in the villages of SR Kandigai, BR Kandigai, Pappankuppam and BR Kandigai Colony are dependent on agriculture. 'If the landfill is set up here, ground water would be contaminated and we cannot carry on with agriculture,' he claimed. During rains, water from the site would enter the farmland as it located on a higher land, he noted.

        The company (Tamilnadu Waste Management Ltd) had commenced civil works on the site in February 2007, despite being forced to stop work on the site on the last three occasions, without securing permission from the Panchayat Union Council as per the Tamilnadu Panchayats Act, 1994, Rosepillai said and added that in June 2005, the Gummidipoondi Panchayat Union issued a resolution against the toxic facility.

        'The village representatives had moved the Madras High Court and obtained an interim stay on the work. After a year-long battle, the court vacated the stay in December 2006, stating that according to the Supreme Court's order no High Court in the country has jurisdiction over issues relating to hazardous wastes and that petitioners should take the matter to the apex court,' he said.

        The Panchayat chief said construction work should not begin without securing permission from the local body. 'The district Collector as well as the RDO should give an assurance that a public hearing would be conducted at Pappan Kuppam itself,' he said.

        M Jayachandran, councillor of Gummidipoondi Panchayat Union said National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), which conducted a preliminary environmental appraisal of the project, had acknowledged that the project site is unsuitable for locating the landfill because of the high water table, the good quality of water and the fact that the area is an alternative source of drinking water for Chennai during summer.

        Renuka, a resident of SR Kandigai village, said, 'On the one hand, the government is spending huge amounts to convert seawater into drinking water. On the other, it is spending money to poison good water.'

        Later, Gummidipoondi Taluk Tahsildhar Thangavelu, who came to pacify the villagers, sought a written statement from them detailing their grievances and also promised to take necessary action.

        Representatives of Community Environmental Monitoring and Chennai-based Youth for Social Change also joined the residents in the protest to express solidarity with the villagers. Efforts to contact the company officials proved to be futile.