COIMBATORE: Angry members of the public along with environmental activists seized as many as 23 trucks from Kerala that were surreptitiously filled with wastes including medical wastes, which was being taken to an agricultural land in the outskirts of Coimbatore for dumping.
Following public outcry, local police registered a case against four persons including the land owner, and arrested the person from Kerala who had taken the land on lease. They have also seized the vehicles.
The waste-laden lorries were stopped by the public before the crew could dump the waste in the agricultural land near Ettimadai in the outskirts of the city. Soon afterwards, revenue and police personnel from KG Chavadi station landed at the spot to conduct a spot enquiry. Madukkarai tahsildar, M P Sivasankaran, told Express that they found used medicine bottles and needles along with electronic gadgets in the dump.
Sources told Express that S Mohammad Elias from Kerala had taken 75 cents of land on lease from a farmer, N Chellappan, claiming that he was going to use the land to segregate waste taken from Kerala.
“It was only a month ago that we leased the vacant part of our land for a monthly rent of `8,000, and the person started dumping the waste two weeks ago. But my father was unable to check what kind of waste it was, whether medical or any other toxic waste. As soon as the local public raised the issue, we asked Elias to explain the facts and details. However, he claimed not having dumped any medical waste here. However, soon after that, we asked him to vacate the land immediately. He will remove the load in the coming days,” said Chellappan’s son Balasubramanian. Chellappan, Elias and the ones who sent the waste from Kerala, Saggi and Shabeer, have been booked under erelvant IPC section.
But the public and the activists charged that the officials manning the police, commercial and RTO check-posts failed to catch this dangerous consignment at the border itself, though this has been an on-going issue haunting Coimbatore for more than three years. Coimbatore Superintendent RV Ramaya Bharathi said that the crew loaded the medical waste and with other wastes to evade checking.
Exposing the lack of coordination between the different departments, TNPCB was unaware of the incident when Express contacted for comments. “We are yet to receive a call from revenue or the police department to check whether it is medical waste,” said A Shanmugam, District Environmental Engineer (South).