The Hindu

Mangalore, Jan 20: Instances of residents dumping garbage in vacant land have increased in the city and Mangalore City Corporation is not taking steps to check this problem.

The problem is rampant in areas such as Urva Chilimbi, Valencia, Ashoknagar, Kadri Mallikatta, Bendoor and Alake where high-rise buildings have come up.

It is easy for the residents of the high-rises to throw garbage and forget about it, but for people living around the vacant land it has become a bane, Chairman of the corporation's standing committee for health Mahabala Maarla told The Hindu

`Old system'

Maarla said that the MCC was yet to evolve a foolproof system for garbage collection in the city where the old system of depositing garbage in roadside bins was in force.

This encourages the residents of high-rise buildings to throw their garbage bags down from the top of their buildings. Maarla said they do not seem to understand that they are polluting their own surroundings.

He said steps were being taken to book residents of high-rise buildings found guilty of such offences. He has appealed to the people to lodge complaints against these residents with the corporation or with the police for creating public nuisance. The corporation was also contemplating introducing a penalty for such offences, Mr. Maarla said. Resident associations in the city state that the penalty system will not work as nobody is in a position to pinpoint an individual violator, as usually the garbage is thrown either in the night or from a distance.

Awareness campaign

The best system would be to fix wire meshes onto the windows of high-rise buildings so the residents would not be able to throw the garbage out of the window, he said. The MCC and the Nairmalya Samithi Okkuta will take up a campaign to advise the residents to subscribe to the door-to-door garbage collection service or dispose their garbage only in designated places. The Builders' Association will also be directed by the MCC to fix wire meshes onto the windows of such buildings.