TENKASI: The police have pulled their socks up and have intensified checks to stop the flow of waste materials, including bio-medical waste, from Kerala into the State.
Superintendent of Police of Tenkasi, R Krishnaraj, told TNIE that the police are monitoring each vehicle from Kerala and would not allow any vehicle bringing wastes into Tamil Nadu. “The people can contact the district police if anyone burns the suspected Kerala wastes in the open,” he added.
A Tenkasi-based environmentalist, A Thilagaraj, demanded the Puliyarai police to stop the vehicles bringing bio-medical and electronics wastes from Kerala. He said that such hazardous wastes are being discarded and burnt in the open in the rural areas of Tenkasi district.
“Some vegetable traders are bringing these wastes from Kerala for money when they are returning to Tamil Nadu after selling their produce in the neighbouring State,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the Puliyarai police, on Wednesday, they slapped fine on five vehicles heading to Tamuil Nadu to Kerala and on the opposite direction for various road rule violations.Sources said that at the check post, two overloaded trucks, ferrying blue metal from Tamil Nadu to Kerala, were fined Rs 2000 by a police team led by Sub Inspector Muthusamy.
“This comes after Kerala’s transport authorities claimed that the overloaded vehicles from Tamil Nadu were managing to escaper the law by producing fake weighment slip. They had also urged the Tamil Nadu police to seize such vehicles at Puliyarai check post itself,” they said.
These two vehicles apart, the police also imposed a penalty of Rs 2500 on three mini trucks that were transporting fish from Kerala to Tamil Nadu. “The fine was imposed as waste water was leaking from the trucks,” they said.
Talking about the minerals which are transported to Kerala, Krishnaraj said that based on the recent order of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, the police are allowing crusher materials to be transported from Tamil Nadu to Kerala.