Patna, Dec. 25: A spick-and-span capital is on the civic body’s agenda. Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is cracking the whip on all those found littering the thoroughfares of the city.
Senior PMC officials have been conducting sudden inspections in many localities of the city and penalising defaulters on the spot, said sources in the civic body. The move is in compliance with a recent high court order to keep the city spick and span.
A senior PMC official said: “From Friday, we have started penalising those found chucking garbage on city streets and not disposing it at the waste collection points. At least eight persons, who were found littering on road, have been fined Rs 500 each in the past three days. All the shopkeepers and garbage collectors from the apartment buildings have been instructed to clear garbage from the complexes by 9am.”
He added: “We are very serious about clearing garbage from the roads. All sanitation workers and inspectors have been instructed to ensure total cleanliness in their areas. In the past three days, two workers have even been suspended on charges of dereliction of duty,” the official added.
According to sources, Patna seems to face an uphill task when it comes to keeping the city clean. The capital struggles to dispose of 800 tonnes of solid waste generated everyday despite over 2,700 regular sanitation workers and 70 garbage trucks deployed to manage the “legal litter” collected at 200 garbage collection points across the city.
Many residents feel that while the menace of littering or urinating in public places is being acknowledged in the anti-litter move. The fear is that the step would not be sustained for long.
“PMC has taken such steps on and off in the past but it continues for a couple of days and then everybody forgets about it. There should be more emphasis on making public aware and also on providing more facilities,” said Muzaffar Rahman, a resident of Kadamkuan.
The PMC official said the move has been initiated to ensure that maximum offenders are targeted. He, however, claimed that the idea was to reform and not penalise.
