Ghaziabad admin hikes penalties for encroachment, pollution

The violators who will come under the ambit of these fines are the management of malls and multiplexes, where roadside parking is rampant, and also the kiosks and vendors who occupy open spaces on roads, leading to traffic chaos.

In order to curb rampant violations such as encroachment and non-compliance of the air pollution norms of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the district administration of Wednesday decided to crack down on such incidents and rolled out hiked fines.

The administration also decided to hike the tow-away charges of several categories of vehicles to discourage parking on roads. (Sakib Ali/HT File Photo)

The violators who will come under the ambit of these fines are the management of malls and multiplexes, where roadside parking is rampant, and also the kiosks and vendors who occupy open spaces on roads, leading to traffic chaos.

The administration also decided to hike the tow-away charges of several categories of vehicles to discourage parking on roads.

According to officials, the previous tow-away charge was Rs200 per instance, which hardly proved as a deterrent to violators.

Now, the administration has hiked the tow-away charges to Rs2,500 for heavy traffic vehicles such as trucks and buses, Rs2,000 for medium commercial vehicles, Rs1,000 for light motor vehicles such as cars, jeeps and Rs200 for two-wheeler and three-wheeler category of vehicles.

“The Ghaziabad Development Authority and the municipal corporation’s enforcement teams have been authorised, along with the traffic police, to penalise violators and issue tow-away penalties. Earlier, we had four towing vans and now, we will be having six additional vans to tackle on-road parking. The drive against the roadside parking of vehicles will continue,” Ritu Maheshwari, district magistrate of Ghaziabad, said.

In case of unauthorised parking outside malls and multiplexes, and encroachment of open space by vendors, a fine from Rs10,000 to Rs50,000 per instance will be issued, officials said. Unauthorised banners, posters and unipoles will attract a penalty of Rs5,000, officials said.

Similarly, violation of building construction norms, spreading air pollution and usage of polythene bags will also attract severe penalties, as laid down under the green tribunal’s norms and Acts.

“We have decided to hike the penalties on a par with the amount in other cities of the state and have also spelt out the rules and Acts under which these are applicable. The enforcement activity is already being taken up vigorously in areas such as Indirapuram. For relocating vendors, we have already instructed different agencies to identify locations for the purpose,” Maheshwari said.

For violating the construction site norms, the administration has listed penalties ranging from a minimum of Rs10,000 to Rs5 lakh, for different categories of constructions and plot sizes, which have been segregated from 100 square metres to over 20,000 sqm.