The police suspect the role of a West Kochi-based racket in the illegal dumping of toilet waste in public spaces and waterbodies which has become rampant in the district of late.
The arrest of three persons hailing from Palluruthy, Mundamveli, and Mattancherry by the Perumbavoor police on the charge of illegal dumping of sewage on Wednesday reinforces the suspicion.
“We have noticed increased involvement of people from areas like Chullikkal in West Kochi,” said V.S. Syamkumar, Sub Inspector, Mulavukad. The Mulavukad police registered as many as 19 cases this year in connection with illegal dumping of toilet waste on the unlit and secluded stretches of Container Terminal Road.
The police usually invoke IPC Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) entailing imprisonment of up to six months or fine or both in such cases.
Waste dumping is a very lucrative business attracting people with criminal background.
Toilet waste is collected from plywood companies and lodgings of migrant workers in the guise of disposing it of at the Brahmapuram plant only to dump it in drains, waterbodies or even roads in the vicinity, said P.A. Faisal, Sub Inspector of Police, Perumbavoor.
Rates varying between ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 per load are charged for sewage disposal. Besides, there have been instances of cheating on the number of loads, as there is no strict monitoring of loading.
“Tracking them [offenders] down is not easy as they drain out contents of tankers in a matter of minutes using huge valves and flee,” Mr. Faisal said.
V.K. Minimol, health standing committee chairperson of the Kochi Corporation, said there had even been instances of tanker operators speeding off after threatening health workers by brandishing knives. “A majority of them engaged in the work seem to have criminal backgrounds,” she added.
Biju James, Joint Regional Transport Officer, Ernakulam, said there were practical difficulties in taking action against such tanker operators.
“We cannot detain the tankers as they cannot be parked on civil station premises. The Health Department should be assigned the task, and the Motor Vehicles Department [MVD] can deal with irregularities in vehicle documents,” said Mr. James.
MVD action
Recently, an MVD squad had intercepted a tanker with sewage and had to escort it all the way to the Brahmapuram plant to ensure that the waste was dumped there as claimed.
District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla said the introduction of GPS trackers for tankers within a couple of months would improve matters. While tankers transporting toilet waste are required to follow the colour code of chocolate brown, there have been instances in the past when water tankers were used for the purpose going by the presence of e-coli in drinking water supplied by them, the MVD authorities said.
According to Ms. Minimol, despite the installed capacity of the Brahmapuram plant to treat 20 loads of toilet waste a day, the corporation issues only 12 passes owing to public protest restricting movement of tankers to night. She, however, said numerous loads might be getting dumped illegally.
“We are awaiting the State government’s approval for introducing GPS and RFID-based tracking system involving a mobile phone app for toilet waste disposal,” Ms. Minimol said.
