Truck drivers offer bribes to Mandur residents

The truck drivers ferrying garbage are reportedly offering a bribe of Rs 500 per truck to the residents of Mandur to allow them to dump more than 200 truckloads.

Earlier this month, the State government entered into an agreement with the residents of Mandur that they would stop dumping of waste in the village from December 1, and only 200 trucks would be sent to the village.

However, villagers noticed that more than 200 vehicles were entering the village, violating the agreement. This led the Mandur residents to keep a track of the vehicles.

Keeping vigil

Accordingly, the Panchayat decided to deploy villagers on rotation basis to keep a track of the vehicles entering the landfill. For the last few days, the villagers sent back many trucks from the village when the number of truckloads was more than 200.

Finally, the truck drivers began offering Rs 500 bribe for each truck but the villagers turned it down.

Chandrashekhar Gowda, a village Panchayat member alleged that the garbage lobby had resorted to bribery after the Mandur residents were returning the garbage exceeding 200 trucks.

He also alleged that some policemen had colluded with the truck drivers and persuaded the villagers to allow dumping.

Another Panchayat member said that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike had not yet started the bio-mining of the 30 lakh tonnes of waste dumped in the village over a period of ten years.

Presently the Palike is covering the garbage hills with soil, which has yielded good results as the stench has reduced substantially.

Ravi, a villager, said, “There was rain in the village on Sunday but the stench was missing maybe due to covering of the filth with soil. But we want the entire garbage heap to be taken away from the village.”

As promised, the Palike has conducted health check-up camps in the village while spraying of pesticide was also going on, said another villager, who wished to be anonymous.