Litterbugs paid BMC nearly Rs 9 lakh in a month………..sharvaripatwa
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation earned Rs 8.83 lakh in May this year in the form of fines collected from people caught littering, spitting and urininating at public places, double the amount collected in May last year. More than 2 years after the BMC’s solid waste management department started deploying independent agencies with clean-up marshals to monitor cleanliness and create public awareness, the total fine collections have crossed Rs 12 crore from 4,21,853 people.
The total fine collected in May last year was Rs 4.48 lakh, according to the data collated by United Way, BMCs partner in its Clean Up Mumbai Campaign.
“The maximum number of offences registered are for spitting, littering and urinating in public,” said B P Patil, Chief Engineer, Solid Waste Management (SWM).
“People are mostly fined for spitting,” said Surendra Kharat, chairman of Akansha Apang Sahkari Sanstha, a fine collecting agency that has about 100 clean up marshalls. “Besides spitting, Mumbaikars urinate in open despite enough number of public toilets in the city. Men are usually fined for dirtying the pavements,” said Kharat.
Citizens are also fined for throwing garbage, dumping debris and bio-medical waste, bathing and defecating in public, feeding animals and birds in non-designated areas, washing clothes in non-designated areas and shopkeepers for dirtying premises. The fine for spitting, littering and urinating in public is anything between Rs 100-Rs 500. For dumping bio-medical waste and other construction waste in non-designated areas, fines range from Rs 500 to Rs 20,000.
A person who is caught relieving himself or spitting in public by the marshals patrolling the wards has to shell out Rs 200, said Kharat. Those offenders who are unable to pay fine are made to take up community service.