Ire over garbage dumping had tragic consequences when a garbage lorry driver fleeing police caning came under a water tanker and was killed at Budigere Cross, near Avalahalli police station, on the city’s outskirts on Saturday night.
Sources said garbage lorries line up near the police station by evening every day, making the environs thoroughly malodorous besides causing congestion on the road leading to the Mandur landfill. When the fed up police personnel used their batons to chase away the lorry drivers who are mandated to dump the garbage at the landfill only after 10 p.m., Venkateshaiah (45) was run over when he jumped out of his lorry and ran to escape the caning. The tanker driver fled.
Meanwhile, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Drivers’ Association resolved to dump garbage at the landfill only during daytime saying the police and communities living near the landfill routinely assault them. The drivers, saying they had no security, staged a snap protest in front of the police station and blocked the road for some time.
This is the second death of a garbage lorry driver in two months. In September, Penchalaiah (53) was killed in a chain accident at Avalahalli. Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy and Commissioner Rajneesh Goel were not available for comment.
