Thiruvananthapuram: Owners to pay if plots are kept unclean

Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation has decided to invoke section 336 of the Kerala Municipal Act to take action against landowners who don’t clean up their plots ahead of the monsoon.

The section strictly prohibits the keeping of filth on premises and the owner should clean up the plot within 24 hours of receiving the notice from the corporation authorities.  

According to officials, there are plenty of vacant and deserted plots in each health circle in the corporation’s jurisdiction and the health squads are on a mission to track down the owners or the relatives of the owners to serve the notices and make them do the cleaning.  

However, some of the landowners are unavailable and the civic body is gearing up to clean up the plots and initiate revenue recovery proceedings against the owners.

“Monsoon is around the corner and these vacant plots are used as dumping spots and covered with vegetations due to lack of maintenance. We will be serving notices to all landowners and if they are not available we would try to contact their relatives or neighbours. If they don’t do the cleanup, we would do it with our sanitation workers. This would come with a cost as per the Act, we would collect double the expenses spend on the cleaning work,” said the official.

However, this hasn’t gone down well with the public. General Secretary of Federation of Resid-ents’ Association Trivan-drum (FRAT) J. Moses said that it’s unfair to penalise the owner of the property.

“Waste is being dumped in public places because there is no waste treatment facility. It’s the responsibility of the corporation to ensure scientific waste management. A responsible landowner can only build a compound wall and put up a signboard saying don’t dump waste here. It’s totally unfair to initiate revenue recovery proceedings,” Mr Moses added