Bengaluru: No cash to pay for littering? Swipe your card

BENGALURU: Caught throwing garbage or urinating by the roadside? You can now pay the penalty through your debit or credit card.
With most offenders trying to get away by stating they’re not carrying cash to pay spot fine, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to allow card payments. On Saturday, it distributed point of sale (POS) machines to all marshals appointed by the agency to crack down on those defacing the city.
BBMP has appointed 228 marshals — while 15 each are deployed at Bellandur and Varthur lakes, the remaining have been tasked with keeping an eye on black spots in their respective areas. Currently, the marshals have been collecting money from those violating solid waste management rules by issuing them physical challans. They collect around Rs 10-15 lakh per month as penalty. In several areas, there have been verbal clashes between violators and marshals as the latter could not establish their credentials when questioned.
“But this will change now as the marshals will not only wear uniforms (green) but also issue challans from the hand-held machines,” BBMP commissioner BH Anil Kumar told STOI. While the penalty for dumping garbage on road is Rs 500, for urinating in public, one has to pay Rs 200.
BBMP on Saturday launched the Sahaaya 2.0 mobile application through which citizens can lodge complaints. The first Sahaaya app was launched in 2016 and received more than 1,000 complaints within one month of its launch. However, later it was dogged by technical glitches. A BBMP official said: The upgraded version of the app is better as a citizen can also register complaints with regard to Bescom, BWSSB, BMRCL, KSPCB and other agencies. “If a complaint is not resolved in a stipulated time, it will be escalated to higher authorities, who will check the complaint based on proof and video. “There is a special feature of geo-tagging. People can track their complaints online from their mobile app,” said Basavaraju S, special commissioner IT and revenue.