Rs 500 reward for info on litter bugs

Mangaluru: A gram panchayat in Dakshina Kannada district has announced a reward of Rs 500 to those who share information on people throwing waste in public places.
Kuppepadavu gram panchayat, about 30km from Mangaluru city, has decided to also impose a Rs 1,000 fine for those dumping waste by the roadside and other public places.
Those who share pictures or videos of people throwing garbage will be given Rs 500 as a reward. The initiative of the GP has yielded results within a week that nearly half a dozen black spots in the village, where people used to throw garbage indiscriminately, are now clean.
Soon after the GP put up boards at all black spots, people have stopped throwing waste, PDO Savitha Mandolikar told TOI.
“People have stopped throwing garbage in public places after seeing the board that we put up,” she said.
“The village was facing a lot of difficulties due to the garbage issue since people were throwing waste by the roadside and other public places. Even if we clean such black spots, garbage heaps appeared the very next day,” Mandolikar said.
“Hence, the issue was brought to the notice of GP members at a meeting on October 28. A decision was taken to impose a penalty of Rs 1,000 on violators and reward Rs 500 to the informers, whose identity will not be disclosed,” she said.
“Boards were put up during a Clean India drive organised with the participation of elected members, GP staff and like-minded people on October 31. We have been noticing that all the black spots are now remaining clean,” she said, adding the village has plans to install CCTV surveillance cameras to impose a penalty on those who throw waste in the village.
Sadashiva Kuppepadavu, a farmer who is part of the village’s cleanliness initiatives, said that awareness is being created through social media to keep the village clean. “We have created WhatsApp groups and are sharing messages on cleanliness. We have been encouraging villagers to segregate waste and start manufacturing compost using the wet waste,” he added.