CCTV spots waste-dumping in Margao, MMC seeks cops’ aid

Margao: The Margao Municipal Council’s (MMC) initiative to install CCTV cameras at waste-dumping black spots has begun bearing fruit. On Monday night, authorities caught a culprit red-handed dumping large quantities of waste near Damodar College, along the ring road.CCTV captured a person in a four-wheeler removing 15-16 waste bags from the vehicle and illegally dumping them on the roadside. The MMC filed a complaint with the Margao town police station against the unidentified culprit.A senior MMC official revealed that despite earlier efforts, illegal waste-dumping continued unabated. “During the surveillance of black spots that we recently conducted, we booked 200 cases of illegal dumping of waste, and levied fines of Rs 4 lakh on the culprits.

However, it did not put an end to people dumping waste at these spots,” the official said.This prompted the civic body to resort to CCTV surveillance. “We installed CCTV cameras at 11 major black spots in the first phase recently,” the official added.The latest incident occurred when the CCTV camera at Comba, along the ring road, captured the dumping activity. “There were 15-16 bags dumped. It cannot be domestic waste, it looks like it is from some commercial establishment,” the official said.

The MMC has requested police to trace and seize the vehicle. “Once the municipality is notified by the police about the seizure of the vehicle, the civic body will also levy a hefty fine on the culprit,” MMC sources said.Meanwhile, the council is gearing up to commission the new gasification plant being set up at Sonsoddo. With several black spots across Margao generating approximately five tonnes of mixed waste daily, MMC officials hope that the new waste disposal facility, likely to be commissioned later this month, will help address this challenge.