The failure of citizens to segregate waste and cut down on the use of plastic, among other violations, is helping the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) fill its coffers. Ward marshals appointed by the BBMP collected ₹22.48 lakh as fine, in around 1,700 cases, in January. It is by far the highest amount collected in a month since September 2019, when the marshals were first roped in.
“In all, including January 2020, over ₹66 lakh has been collected in the past five months. On an average, they collect around ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh every month. This month, we crossed ₹20 lakh,” a senior BBMP official said.
One of the reasons for the increase in the fine collection is the renewed crackdown on single-use plastic and related items. Fines collected in January for this was a little over ₹10 lakh as against around ₹3 lakh in the previous month.
Solid waste management violations remain the biggest offence, with over ₹11 lakh collected. In December 2019, the amount for the same category was ₹7 lakh.
D. Randeep, Special Commissioner (SWM), BBMP, feels that deployment of marshals had helped reduce the number of violations. “All the marshals and 27 SWM assistant executive engineers will be provided with PoS (point of sale machines) on Saturday. As of now, only junior health officers have been given the machines,” he said.
Officials hope that with the PoS machines, fine collection will not only be more effective across the city, but also bring about transparency and accountability.
Penalties are levied on solid waste management violations such as littering, not segregating waste at source, improper discarding of animal waste and construction debris, and plastic ban violation, etc.
The BBMP incentivises marshals by allowing them to keep 5% of the fines collected.
“We are now considering extending this incentive to the junior health inspectors and assistant executive engineers in the solid waste management. The Commissioner has agreed to the proposal on extending the incentive to others too. It will be implemented soon,” Mr. Randeep said.
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa will be launching Sahaya 2.0 and Namma Bengaluru apps on Saturday. He will also hand over PoS machines to the marshals and 15 mechanical sweeping machines to the BBMP.
