Pay more for spitting, urinating, defecating in open

NAGPUR: Citizens spitting, urinating or defecating in the open in city will now have to shell out stiffer penalties. The state government has fixed spot fines for four types of nuisances and these would replace the amount finalized by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
For urinating and defecating in public the fine would now be Rs200 and Rs500 respectively, up from Rs100 and Rs200 earlier. For spitting, it would be Rs150 instead of Rs100.

The government has made spot fines for spitting, throwing garbage, open urination and defecation applicable for all municipal corporations, councils and panchayats effective from Friday. The state’s urban development department issued two notifications on Friday under relevant provisions of Maharashtra Municipal Corporations (MMC) Act and The Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act.

Citing provisions in Swachh Maharashtra Mission and Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, the government has finalized the fines. “All urban areas in the state were declared as open defecation free in presence of President Ram Nath Kovind on October 1, 2017. We have to make the entire state free from open defecation and also garbage. Support from people is a must for achieving the goal. It is necessary to recover spot fines from the people who are not following the norms,” the notification said.

UDD also was upset over most urban local bodies not framing their own bylaws in given time. NMC had framed its bylaws and implemented it from December 11 last year. NMC’s spot fines for spitting, open urination and defecation are less compared with that fixed by government. Only, the spot fine for throwing garbage in public places is less than that fixed by government.

NMC health officer Dr Pradeep Dasarwar told TOI that NMC will have to implement the fines framed by the government. “About fine on throwing garbage, we will seek necessary decision from the standing committee,” he said.

The government has framed different fines for different categories of municipal corporations, councils and panchayats.

NMC had also made applicable fines for creating other types of nuisances like burning garbage, throwing garbage by commercial, educational, marriage lawns etc, throwing construction materials in public places that will continue. In the last nine months, NMC had imposed fines on around 11,000 people and recovered around Rs1 crore as fine.