BMC traces debris dumper, fires contractor

MUMBAI: The BMC has cracked the mystery of the debris dumped illegally near Haji Ali. Initially, a six-member team of civic officials went through the debris in the hope of getting at least a piece of paper as a clue to the elusive dumper that dumped the debris on the arterial stretch. The civic body even offered Rs 10,000 reward to anyone who could provide information about the dumper.They met with no luck.
It was then that the team decided to split into three groups of two. The teams visited three police stations in the neighbouring areas to browse the CCTV footage from their respective localities. Unfortunately, N M Joshi Marg, Tardeo and Worli police stations had nothing to offer in terms of identifying the dumper’s registration number. The area where the debris was dumped was not under the CCTV coverage there.
As a last resort, the team approached the traffic police control room to check its CCTV footage as the resolution is better. The team finally got a breakthrough: It spotted a dumper carrying debris near N M Joshi Marg. The officials tracked its movement which showed it going towards Worli with the debris and returning empty.
The officials scanned the images further, hoping to get the number of the vehicle. Officials found the number and with the help of an app, traced it to a contractor who was hired by BMC officials from another ward to transport debris. The contractor has been suspended and the BMC has written to the police to register a case. The same dumper had dumped debris in another area of the ward last month too, but had gone unnoticed. Dumpers must dump debris on dumping grounds. Several times, though, dumpers avoid travelling the long distance to the dumping ground and illegally empty out in nearby areas.
Last Wednesday, TOI had highlighted how the peak hour snail-paced rush on a Worli arterial road extended till 10am. For, around 12 tonne, or a truckload, of construction debris was found dumped on a southbound lane of Lala Lajpatrai Road, between Lotus and Haji Ali junctions, blocking the traffic movement the entire stretch. It was only around 10am that the debris was cleared and vehicular movement normalized.
Municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi took serious note of the incident and asked officials to track down the culprit. Devendra Kumar Jain, assistant municipal commissioner of G South Ward, asked his officials take up the issue on a priority basis and announced Rs 10,000 reward. Ward official said they got the dumper’s registration number after examining the footage from multiple CCTVs.