The Fort Police have identified the tanker lorry illegally transporting septage waste, which allegedly knocked down two contingent workers of the city Corporation, last week.
The workers were on point duty to track down illegal waste dumpers. The culprits are yet to be nabbed. The police have been facing criticism from the Corporation authorities for the delay in tracking down the accused.
According to Aji Chandran Nair, Circle Inspector (Fort), the vehicle has been found to have Ernakulam registration.
“Since it was night, we had got only CCTV visuals of the truck passing by at various points. We were not able to identify the number. But, we have been inquiring with people who are working in the field of septage waste collection. From such inquiries, we could narrow down the suspects. We have identified the vehicle and one person. As of now, we cannot reveal more,” he said.
Lucrative option
He said that there are only a few operators who are carrying out septage waste collection. But those who are in it find it a lucrative option, as there are too few to meet all the demand.
Many of them collect the waste from houses, flats and other institutions and dump it illegally in vacant plots, puramboke land or water bodies.
Last Wednesday, two contingent sanitation workers of the Corporation noticed large quantities of toilet waste dumped near a Milma booth at Ambalathara, around 3 a.m.
When they followed the tanker lorry carrying septage waste, they were knocked down. Both of them suffered injuries.
On Thursday, three sanitation workers on night duty were attacked by goons at the Fort garage, after they took into custody an autorickshaw which was found to be dumping waste. The culprits in this attack are yet to be identified.
Meanwhile, health officials of the city Corporation say that the pace of the investigation has been disappointing.
Protests planned
“It is not believable that the number of the truck cannot be identified from the cameras, as the cameras here are equipped to identify the numbers of over-speeding vehicles.
If the culprits are not nabbed soon, we are thinking of various steps, including holding a sit-in in front of the police station,” said the health official.