Gurgaon: Officials authorised to keep an eye on violation of pollution norms must issue at least 150 challans worth Rs 7.5 lakh till the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) is in force, an order by municipal commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh has said. If any official fails to issue the required number of challans and recover at least 50% of the penalty, the amount would be deducted from his or her salary.
Further, the salary of the official concerned would be stopped if he fails to recover half the penalty amount by April 15. GRAP, which was imposed in the city on October 15 last year, is in force till March 15.
The strict stand comes against the backdrop of the dismal recovery rate of fines imposed on various agencies and individuals for GRAP violations. Between October 15 and January 31 this year, 736 challans worth Rs 82.2 lakh had been issued to violators. But the civic officials had been able to recover only Rs 14.8 lakh, which roughly translates to 17%.
“Issuing challans and not recovering the amount does not serve the purpose because challans are handed out with the intent of penalising a violator. In our case, only 17% of the challan amount has been recovered. That is why the notice was issued to all officials concerned,” Singh told TOI.
The order issued by the municipal commissioner said, “On an average 150 minimum numbers of challans must be issued by each officer/official during GRAP enforcement period (15th Oct, 2020 to 15th March, 2021) and the challan amount should not be less than Rs 7,50,000. In case of failure to do the same, 50% of the above amount i.e, Rs 3,75,000 will be recovered from the respective officer’s salary.”
The order also quoted the low recovery rate. “Since the challan recovery is very Iow i.e. 17% for GRAP related challans, it is hereby directed that at least 50% of the amount must be recovered by each officer/official. In case the challan amount is not recovered by the concerned officer/official by 15th April, 2021, salary for the month of April, 2021 and onwards shall be stopped till the amount mentioned above is not recovered and no NOC shall be issued on their transfer or deputation. Their salary would be released only after receiving NOC from CAO, MCG on the basis of Audit Report,” it added.
Officials in the rank of joint commissioners, executive engineers, assistant engineers, junior engineers, senior sanitary inspectors and so on, are authorised to issue challans in their respective areas for violations of air pollution norms in certain categories. Challans under GRAP are issued for dumping and burning garbage in the open, leaving municipal waste uncovered during transportation, violating environmental norms during construction activity and not keeping construction material covered, etc.