In its drive to make the city clean, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will soon start monitoring and penalising people for littering and spitting in public places, Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said.

"Most of the citizens have a strong desire to see their city cleaner. In such a scenario, we need to take punitive action against people who are still littering and spitting in public places," Nehra said while talking to ANI.

The Municipal Commissioner also said that a command and control centre has been set up for this purpose.

"We are now in the process of using the surveillance network which we have put up as a part of the smart city project to catch such offenders who are spitting or littering in the open. The command and control centre which we have been able to set up is one of the best in the country," said Nehra.

Elaborating on the measures taken, he said, "We have decided to form a joint enforcement team along with the city police. One team will be there for every ward. Each team will be given an e-rickshaw to move around. This team will be moving around to make people aware of the importance of keeping their city clean and abiding by the laws of the land."

Nehra also claimed that they were getting good support from people in the drive.

"One of the most important aspects is to change the attitude of the citizens. We are trying to find those 1 or 2 per cent people who do not change their habits and sensitize them by levying penalties," the Municipal Commissioner said.

He also asserted that in the last few years, the city has jumped in the cleanliness rankings.

"In the last Swachhta Sarvekshan 2019, Ahmedabad city was declared the cleanest big city in India. Our next aim is to become the cleanest city in India and to consolidate the good results that we have obtained so far," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)