Burning dry leaves will burn a hole in your pocket

The residents of the city must think twice before they set fire to dry leaves in open space as it may cost them dear.

The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has started a drive to check the menace and is imposing a penality of Rs 5,000 on violators.

As per the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, which came into effect in 2001, burning of dry leaves is prohibited and is a punishable offence. But, it appears, that the people and civic workers are not aware of the rules. Even though the rules are a decade old, burning of dry leaves is a common practice in areas like

Chamarajapuram, Kalidasa (KD) Road, Vijayanagar and Vishnuvardhana Road. According to the authorities, the menace is rampant during winter. People roaming during night hours set fire to dry leaves to avoid cold and also to dispose them.

MCC Health Officer Dr H Ramachandra said, the menace had come down as the officials were patrolling the city for the past few days.

“We have issued warning to several residents, not to set fire to dry leaves. I have instructed every zone health inspector, environmental engineer and civic worker to keep a watch on violators. Earlier, we had observed civic workers burning dry leaves to avoid disposing them and thus conducted an awareness programme about its impact on health and environment and also provided them training on disposing dry leaves. If any civic worker commits a mistake, a day’s salary will be deducted as punishment. However, the civic body has not imposed any fine till date this year,” said Ramachandra.

A civic worker, who prefered anonymity, said the higher authorities had instructed her not to set fire to dry leaves. “We sweep dry leaves and keep them by the road side, but some people lit them before we dispose them,” she said.

Chandrakala Prasanna, a resident of Vijayanagar, said she had been facing the problem for many years now. “Not only during nights, even during daytime we suffer bad smoke.

Night strollers may set afire dry leaves but no resident do this as they are the sufferers of harmful smoke. The authorities must take stringent action against violators. I was unaware of the rule, the authorities should educate and implement it in an effective manner,” said Chandrakala.