PERNEM
Angry locals stopped two trucks which were caught dumping fibre waste near a quarry in Tuem.
The confusion then prevailed after the truck drivers alleged that the Tuem panchayat itself had asked them to dump the garbage in the quarry.
While former Tuem sarpanch and sitting panch Nilesh Kandolkar, Margaret Lobo and Kishor Naik notified Pernem police, they were asked to file a written complaint in the matter.
The locals had intercepted two trucks at a quarry in Tuem and while one truck had already offloaded the fibre waste, the other truck was loaded with fibre waste.
“These truck drivers claimed they had been asked to fill the quarries. If so, why was fibre garbage being dumped instead of soil,” asked Kandolkar.
Kandolkar told the drivers that he is a panch of Tuem and asked them to identify the person who had told them to dump the fibre waste.
Kandolkar then suspected that someone from the panchayat may have been involved in the incident.
Locals later let off both truck drivers with a warning, but no action has been taken against anyone so far.
Tuem has several quarries which get filled during the rains and they attract many people for a swim at these water-filled quarries, often with tragic consequences. Last year, four school children had drowned in one of these quarries.
Despite instructions to quarry owners to either build temporary fences around quarries or to permanently fill them up with mud, little action has been taken in the matter.
