Next time, think twice before you litter, spit or commit any other “act of nuisance” on roads, streets, bus stands and railway stations. For, you may end up paying fines for these supposedly “harmless” acts.
The Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which provides for imposing penalty for littering, spitting, committing other acts of nuisance on road and failing to segregate dry and wet waste at households, has been assented to by the Governor, H R Bhardwaj.
Gazetted on August 20, the bill has thus become law. “The commissioners of municipal corporations, including Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), will decide on appointing the enforcement officers for this purpose,” P N Srinivasachary, Principal Secretary, Urban Development, told Deccan Herald. He said the enforcement officers would be of the rank of group ‘B’ and above.
The amendment bill, passed by the State legislature last week, provides for imposing penalty for littering, spitting, urinating, defecating in the open or committing other acts of nuisance on roads, bus stations, railway stations, streets, playgrounds, parks and other premises of public utility. The fine will be Rs 100 for first offence and Rs 200 for subsequent offences.
Individuals failing to segregate waste will be punished with a penalty of Rs 100 for the first offence and Rs 500 for repeating the same offence. Dumping of building waste will incur a penalty of Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 5,000 for each subsequent offence.
In addition, the legislation has a provision for fining those who fail to segregate other waste, irregularly deposit rubbish or filth on road or dump building waste irregularly.
Removal of unauthorised cable, including optical fibre cables, has now been added to the obligatory functions of the city corporations.