Locals stop trucks from dumping debris

Mumbai: Breach Candy residents Tuesday night halted trucks dumping debris at the proposed Coastal Road site after they found that the trucks did not have the requisite clearance from the authorities. However, the residents claimed that the dumping work resumed two hours later at 2 am. The residents are opposing land reclamation for the project.

Every night, residents have been noticing a few trucks dumping debris at the reclamation. Fifty residents from Breach Candy gathered and stopped the dumping work. The residents asked the contractors whether they had permission to dump the de-bris. The contractors did not have any permission at the time. The residents then called the police. Wi-th the help of the police, the residents stopped the contractor from dumping debris. But it was not for a long time. After 2 am in the morning, the contractor resumed his work.

Zoru Bathena said, “Residents asked the contractor for the permission but he could not provide the same at night. He also mentioned that he would show it to them in the morning. The senior officer (from the company which got the contract to dump the debris in the sea) was there for the meeting in the morning. They have passed some paper images on What-sApp. We are trying to che-ck the authenticity of the papers and permissions given to the company.”

Geeta Seshu, a journalist and a resident from Bandra who tweeted about the incident, said, “Residents will decide what steps are to be taken in the coming days. As the government authorities have not conducted any public hearing or taken into account concerns of the public before starting the work.”