Residents produce evidence of dumping in Kaggadasapura lakebed

BBMP files complaint, but police are yet to register a case

up in arms:Residents allege that the debris is being dumped at the southern end of the lakebed.— Photo: Special Arrangement

Cases of indiscriminate dumping of construction and demolition waste, especially in vulnerable areas like lakebeds and wetlands, do not seem to end. The latest example is the Kaggadasapura lakebed where residents have taken up a fight against those dumping not only debris but also garbage in the lakebed.

After they complained to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with photographic evidence of a truck dumping debris at the southern end of the lakebed, the civic body on Friday lodged a complaint with the Byappanahalli police, who however are yet to register a case.

This comes days after indiscriminate dumping of debris in the lakebeds of Arakere and Rampura lakebeds had come to light. A hill that had been formed on Kundalahalli lakebed due to the illegally dumped construction debris is yet to be cleared even though it is almost a year since citizens complained.

Suvajit Sengupta, a resident of Kaggadasapura, said that the dumping of debris isn’t a new phenomenon and this was also not the first time that the residents have complained. “Three months ago, we raised the issue with the local councillor and got a gate installed at the southern end of the lakebed. But the dumping seems to be continuing unabated, threatening the survival of the lake,” he said.

Another resident Raveen said that many large construction projects are underway at Abhaya Reddy Layout from where the debris is suspected to be coming in trucks and being dumped in the lakebed surreptitiously at night.

Raveendra Babu, Assistant Executive Engineer, C.V. Raman Nagar, BBMP, said that the civic body had on Friday lodged a criminal complaint against unidentified persons after residents produced photographic evidence.

“But Byappanahalli police have not registered an FIR. They said that the RTO would be contacted to track down the owners of the trucks using the registration numbers. The police have promised to get the truck owners,” he said.

Byappanahalli police were not available for comment.

Though the civic body has earmarked eight abandoned stone quarries on the city's outskirts to dump construction debris, BBMP studies reveal that less than half of the construction debris that is produced in the city reaches the quarries.

The city produced an estimated 2,300 tonnes of construction and demolition debris every day.

Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, SWM, BBMP said that the civic body is working on a proposal to issue specific permits to trucks to transport debris and fix GPS on them to track them.