Thiruvananthapuram: Squad to curb waste-dumping

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With growing complaints of bird-hits from the Airport Authority of India, the district administration, city corporation and police have formed a combined squad to combat the menace of illegal waste dumping around the airport premises.  

At a recent review meeting, the representatives of AAI, Thiruvananthapuram, had raised this issue and sought immediate action.

However, an official of the health wing under the civic body said that the night squad had been active since January 31. “The district administration has invoked section 133 of CrPC to prevent dumping of garbage in public places posing a threat to the public. The collector has constituted a team comprising police and health officials. But we were unable to catch anyone in the past week,” said the official.

Bird-hits are happening not just because of the waste dump.  “In most of the places, airports are located far away from human settlements. Here the airport is located in a thickly populated area. There are hundreds of houses,” said the official.

As part of Operation King Cobra, the squad registered a case under section IPC 868 against a violator, who tried to dump waste brought in an autorickshaw.