It has been a familiar sight in many parts of the city for quite some time — the windowpanes of a passing car comes down and a hand magically emerges, letting a plastic cover filled to the brim with waste material fly to a corner of the road. Sometimes, this is the handiwork of the acrobats among the motorcyclists. More often than not, this used to happens under the cover of darkness.
This practice is set to end soon with Corporation health officials launching a night patrol in several wards as part of the ‘My City, Beautiful City’ waste management project. Once caught, hefty fines are in order.
“We started the night patrol in our ward from Thursday. Specific areas commonly preferred for such waste dumping have been identified and we are concentrating on these areas to identify offenders. Eleven of us take turns through the night, covering most areas of the ward,” says K.C. Ashok, Health Inspector, Fort ward.
The fines range anywhere from Rs.5,000 to Rs.25,000. Previously, when the fine was low, there have been instances where the offenders paid the fine and repeated the act, officials say.
“Though we have been campaigning about the importance of treating waste at source for long, many are yet to imbibe that habit. We want to put an end to this menace of throwing household waste in public places, once and for all. Enough warnings have been given. Now these hefty fines will hopefully be a deterrent. We have set up Nirmal units and bio-bins so that they do not need to take the trouble to dispose it. They just need to bring it to these counters. In the next stage, help of the police department will also be sought to catch the offenders,” says S. Pushpalatha, chairperson, Health Standing Committee.
The fifth Nirmal unit in the city was inaugurated at the Fort ward on Friday. On Saturday, two more were opened at Sreekanteswaram. Another waste recovery centre, which will collect plastic waste as well, was also opened at the same location.
