MCC Officials Catch Truck Driver Dumping Waste by Riverside-Owner Fined Rs 5000

MCC Officials Catch Truck Driver Dumping Waste by Riverside- Owner Fined Rs 5000

• MCC Officials Catch Truck Driver of the truck bearing registration No KA 19 AR 0064 Dumping Waste by Riverside has been seized and parked in MCC building lot- Owner Fined Rs 5000 since the quantity of the waste was small if not would have been fined Rs 25K

Mangaluru: While India Wants To Be Swachh, so also Mangaluru wants to be Swachh, but we see a bunch of ignorant people abusing the Swachh Bharat by dumping or littering garbage wherever they feel like, and the rest is history. Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of our country, calls for turning the country into Clean India (Swachh Bharat) gathered steam. PM Modi launched the ambitious ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) 2nd October 2014 to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of cities, towns, urban and rural areas. Six years later, the success of the whole exercise seems futile when we see piles of garbage at every nook and corner, thereby making a mockery of Swachh Bharat.

And added to the filth created by citizens aka residents aka public with all kinds of waste, we also have trucks dumping construction debris, etc either by the roadside, riverside or wherever they find a suitable empty place. And this morning Dayanand Poojary- Environmental Engineer along with other MCC officials after getting reliable information that a bunch of trucks have been dumping construction materials by the riverside, quickly rushed to the spot, and were able to seize one truck, while the others sped away seeing them- but the officials were quick in capturing their registration number plates on their smartphones (See pictures in the report).

Apart from construction debris, there is also other waste dumped by this riverside of Phalguni River, off Kulur Bridge near Bangra Kulur, in the outskirts of the City. Speaking to Team Mangalorean Er Dayanand Poojary, the MCC Environmental Engineer said, “As soon as we received reliable information this morning we rushed to the spot around 11 am today (Thursday, 22 October) and we were lucky to seize one truck bearing registration number KA 19 AB 0064, and it is now parked in MCC building lot and will be only released after the necessary fine amount is paid, and also the dumped waste near the riverside is cleared. Among other trucks who were also dumping waste near the riverside, but took off seeing us, a few of their number plates were captured by us ( KA 19 C 5437; KA 19 B 5244; KL 07 L 7400, among others). More details on the ownership of the trucks will be obtained from RTO to take further action. The owner of the seized truck has to pay a fine of Rs 5000, since the quantity of waste dumped was small, if not the fine would have been Rs 25 thousand. Further action will be taken on MCC Commissioner Akshy Kumar direction”.

Ramesh K, a resident near Kulur Bangra area speaking to Team Mangalorean said, “I am glad that MCC officials have finally taken some action today since the illegal dumping of waste has been going on for a while. Usually, many such trucks come late at night, to avoid getting caught when they dump waste. Every day I see a queue of trucks near the riverside waiting to dump garbage without any regard for the environment or the law. Even more alarmingly, the illegal activity is being done hand-in-hand with the police and other concerned authorities. The act is in brazen violation of all the rules. Hope MCC will take serious note of this illegal activity and put an end to it before the garbage gets washed into the river and gets polluted”.