Littering in public can now incur a fine of Rs 100

Chennai: Next time when you are about to throw garbage on road, watch out for Greater Chennai Corporation officials as the civic body has been imposing a penalty for littering in public places.

In 2017, when the city ranked low in Swachh Sarvekshan rankings, the civic body had collected Rs 41.75 lakh from people, who littered in public places.

“The penalty amount had been collected during the period starting from January 1, 2017, to January 31, 2018,” N. Mahesan, Chennai Corporation Chief Engineer (Building), who is also the in-charge for solid waste management, told students participating in Swachh Bharat awareness event. Mahesan also added that the civic body has been imposing '100 fine for the offence.

Mahesan also pointed out that the city is generating 5,500 tons of garbage every day of which plastic wastes amounts to 30 per cent.

With people seeking plastic bags from shops, accumulation of plastic bags increases thus posing damages to the environment, Mahesan said.

“As the corporation had built 5,979 individual toilets and 1,003 community toilets in the city under Swachh Bharat mission, open defecation has been curtailed in the city. Centre government will soon declare the city as open defecation free,” he said.

According to data, the civic body had demolished as many as 1,850 toilets directly connected to city rivers and modified 3,900 such toilets. “The corporation will impose a penalty of Rs 50 on the persons defecating in public. The corporation has been maintaining 853 conventional toilets and 328 modern modular toilets including e-toilets,” he said.

The data also suggest that the Chennai Corporation has been collecting nearly 400 tonnes of plastic and non-bio-degradable wastes on Wednesdays. The civic body also had identified and rehabilitated 168 manual scavengers.