Corp sacks sanitation worker who dumped waste in sea

Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation has sacked a

sanitation worker

who was found dumping waste in the sea at Poonthura.

TOI published the picture of the corporation worker unloading a box full of trash directly in the sea on December 15. Four boxes of waste were dumped in the sea by the worker, which was photographed by TOI lensman Rakesh Nair.

The health wing had sought a report after the photo was published. Poonthura health inspector Sujith Sudhakar said that the worker was expelled from the duty as he was caught working against the principles of waste management being propagated by corporation. The sacked labourer was working on daily-wage basis.

“Over the last few months we have been working really hard among the coastal population to teach basic principles of waste segregation and to prevent the practice of dumping waste directly in the sea as it results in serious environmental pollution and threatens marine life. What our worker did was against our policy and it derails our campaign. The civic body stands firm on its policies of zero waste and segregation at source,” said Sujith Sudhakar.

The civic body is in the process of setting up aerobic bins in coastal areas as part of source level waste management. tnn