4 booked in an hour for dumping waste at Vrishabhavathi valley

BENGALURU: After several failed attempts to stop people from dumping garbage in storm water drains and rainwater valleys, police have started booking cases against trash tossers. On May 3, West division police booked two cases in an hour against four men who were caught dumping waste into Vrishabhavathi valley.
Kamakshipalya assistant sub-inspector Venkatachalaiah, who was patrolling near Sumanahalli Junction at 10pm, caught three men while they were dumping industrial waste into the valley. Alok Sharma, Shyam and Jeelan were getting rid of garment waste, including oil and clothes from a factory in Mahadeshwaranagar. The accused had come in a car carrying trash.
Forty-five minutes later, head constable Mehaboob Pasha on patrol caught Lokesh, a vegetable vendor at RMC yard, when he was throwing rotten onions into the valley. Lokesh had parked his goods auto next to the service road and was dumping waste. There were not enough streetlights at the spot which made things easier for him.
In both cases, police booked cases under IPC sections 431(mischief by injury to public road, bridge, river or channel), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 278 (making atmosphere noxious to health). The accused were taken into custody and released on bail later.
100kg trash seized
A BBMP official said garbage weighing around 100kg was recovered from them. “Neither police nor civic agency can be at every place to check garbage dumping, but if communities (resident associations) are involved, we can expect a change,” he added.
Vrishabhavathi valley is a critical valley identified by BBMP and recently, desilting works were carried out to prevent flooding in the neighbourhood. The civic agency identified 246 desilting locations along 185km of the valley.
BBMP chief engineer (storm water drains) BS Prahlad said: “We’ve urged police to book cases against culprits.”
Inputs from Ipshita Mukherjee