THANE: As many as 19,000 Thane residents were spotted littering the city in January of which almost 5,000 were penalised for their acts by the
cleanliness marshals deployed by the civic body.
The team of around 40 cleanliness marshals touring all the wards collected nearly Rs 11 lakh as penalty from citizens littering in a month alone. Activists said the administration should now aggressively promote the cleanup drives and work towards bringing down the number of offenders in the subsequent months. Incidentally, the ranking of the city in the Swacch Survekshan survey had dropped last year.
The marshals, a part of a private agency, have been empowered by the administration to penalise residents found dirtying the city environs by spitting or urinating, dumping trash on streets among other acts, said an official. As many as 13,460 people were found littering but were let off with a warning. Around 5,457 others found flouting the basic civic norms were penalised between Rs 100 and Rs 10,000 depending on the type of violation committed.
The civic body had deployed these marshals from December and had asked them to first spread awareness about cleanliness and start penalising from January.
While the agency will recover its revenue from the fines, it will also share a major part of the earnings with the corporation as was approved by the general body recently.
"We are planning to intensify the drive in the subsequent months," said a senior civic official.
Meanwhile, activists have questioned the drives launched by the administration and also sought clarification on why it has started fining people before providing amenities. "It is incorrect to penalise people without giving them adequate dustbins, urinals or spittoons. Littering the city is not justified at all but the administration must first develop such amenities across the city and then start penalising people," said Amit Deshpande, a resident.
Illustration for representational purpose.
