The Hindu               13.05.2013

Corpn. seeks police assistance to check unauthorised debris dumping

The latest in the series of efforts the Coimbatore
Corporation has taken to tackle the illegal debris dumping menace, is
the help it has sought from the Coimbatore City Police.

According
to sources in the Corporation, in the next couple of days, the civic
body will submit to the Police a list of places across the five zones
that are prone to debris dumping to seek their help in checking the
movement of vehicles that dump debris.

The sources
reason that it will be easy for the City Police to keep track of
vehicles that dump debris at night because most of the illegal dumping
takes place at odd hours — a time difficult to monitor by the
Corporation.

The sources say that the Corporation has
collected the details of places prone to dumping of debris in the five
zones from its five assistant town planning officers.

In
the North Zone, the vacant lands on Thair Itteri Road, Athipalayam Road
and the one near Kalaimagal Garden in Thudiyalur are used to dump
debris.

In the West Zone, dumping is rampant along
the Muthannankulam bund and on vacant lands on the
Poosaripalayam-Thondamuthur Road and Vadavalli-Kalveerampalayam Road.

In
the East Zone it happens on Pattanam Road, at Singanallur Kolatheri,
Kannabiran Mill Road, Nava India Road and Neelikonampalayam Burial
Ground Road.

In the South Zone, the dumping is
rampant at the Chokkampudur Burial Ground and along the
Ukkadam-Sundakkamuthur Bypass Road. And, in the Central Zone it happens
on the Valangulam bund.

Meanwhile, the Coimbatore City Police say they would also step up efforts to check debris dumping in the city.

Deputy
Commissioner of Police Pravesh Kumar said that notwithstanding the
Corporation seeking help from the Police, the latter would also act to
check illegal dumping of debris in the city.

The Police was empowered under Section 290 of the Indian Penal Code to deal with those who dump debris.

And if they dumped debris on roads, the Police could invoke a few other sections of the IPC as well.

The Corporation, ever since G. Latha assumed office as Commissioner, has been trying to address the issue.

It first held a meeting with the building contractors asking them to dump debris.

It then earmarked places for dumping debris in almost all the wards of the Corporation.

But the efforts yielded only partial results.

The sources say that the combined effort of the Police and the Corporation will yield better results.