Two held for dumping medical waste on city outskirts

Mysuru: Mysuru district police caught two persons red-handed while they were trying to dump two truckloads of medical waste from Kerala on the outskirts of Mysuru.

Superintendent of Mysuru district police CB Ryshyanth told reporters Tuesday evening that two trucks from Kerala's Kozhikode entered Mysuru late at night and were about to unload the medical waste on government land around Adakanahalli industrial area when the police intervened.

He said the two trucks crossed the checkpost in Nanjangud. The police followed the trucks and caught the two occupants when they were trying to unload the medical waste.

The truck driver Afzal and cleaner in one of the trucks were arrested while the driver of the other truck escaped. The police is also on the lookout for three others from T Narsipur police station limits in Mysuru – Tanveer, Shoaib and Kabeer – who were co-ordinating with the drivers in dumping the waste in Nanjangud.

Though complaints of dumping of waste from Kerala in Mysuru had been made earlier also, Mr Ryshyanth said the police had managed to catch the accused involved in the dumping of medical waste after setting up a checkpost at Nanjangud.

The checkpost, that had been set up 1.5 months ago, was manned 24/7. "All vehicles passing through the checkpost between 2230 hrs and 0600 hrs are checked. Many vehicles are checked during the day too", he said, claiming that no instance of robbery on the highway had been reported after the checkpost was activated. He said a CCTV too will be installed here.

The accused are likely to be booked under provisions of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, for transporting medical waste without property documentation as well as for environmental degradation under the anti-pollution laws.