After anti-spitting campaign, Pune municipal corporation to now fine offenders under anti-litter drive

The SWM department plans to keep strict vigil between 4 pm and 8 pm at 430 prominent spots in the city where garbage is being dumped regularly.

After a week-long anti-spitting drive (November 10-16), in which the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) penalised 1,500 offenders, the solid waste management (SWM) department is all set to undertake an anti-litter drive from Monday.

Each ward office has been informed of the new initiative and every deputy sanitary inspector (DSI), sanitary inspector (SI) and other workers of SWM will be a part of the drive.(SANKET WANKHADE/HT PHOTO)

The SWM department plans to keep strict vigil between 4 pm and 8 pm at 430 prominent spots in the city where garbage is being dumped regularly with help of 15 teams. The department will penalise residents if caught littering streets. “Every ward office was told to survey their areas and give us a list of places where garbage was being dumped. Then, we zeroed in at specific spots. If people are caught throwing garbage outside, they will be penalised and will have to pay ₹180 as fine,” said SWM department head Dynaneshwar Molak. 

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Each ward office has been informed of the new initiative and every deputy sanitary inspector (DSI), sanitary inspector (SI) and other workers of SWM will be a part of the drive.

Officials said that despite giving citizens options of disposing litter and garbage, people are still throwing garbage on the roads. “PMC has given residents various options like - SWaCH collecting garbage from their homes at ₹60 per month, PMC-run ‘ghanta gaadi’ to pick up segregated waste from various wards - but residents still dump garbage on the corner of the roads. This will change from Monday,” Molak said.

Meanwhile, during the week-long anti-spitting drive, PMC collected ₹2 lakh as fine, which according to Molak, will be added to the Sankalp fund (created to collect fines received from various drives). The fund will be used for various cleanliness activities in the city. During the drive, the civic body fined those found spitting on road and asked them to clean up the spot.

Molak said, “After a successful one week of penalising offenders who were caught spitting and spoiling the roads, we will begin an anti-litter drive from Monday (November 19) across the city.”