Chennai corporation to impose spot fines for violation of civic rules

CHENNAI: In two days from now, on-spot fining of residents violating civic rules will begin. Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) employees will penalise indiscriminate dumping of garbage on road, non-segregation of waste, illegal sewage discharge and straying of cattle, using pointe of sale (POS) devices to collect the fine amount. Even property tax will be collected using these devices.

About 500 POS devices have been procured and distributed to corporation personnel, who have been mandated to penalise violators just as traffic police personnel do in case of road rule violations.Payments can be made via UPI, debit/ credit cards, demand drafts or cheques. GCC has rented the devices from Indian Overseas Bank.
Rent amount yet to be finalised
Conservancy and sanitary inspectors, zonal officers, executive and assistant executive engineers and ward assistant engineers in GCC will utilise these machines which will also be installed in the 15 flying squad vehicles used to catch violators in the 15 zones.
“It (devices) is being configured now. We will hand them to officials in another two days for imposing spot fines,” said GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran, adding that the rent amount is yet to be finalised.
Previously, paper challans were issued to collect fines as demand drafts or cheques. “It takes a day or two for the transactions to complete and enter data after challans are issued. But POS devices can generate realtime transaction feed and MIS (Management Information System) data,” said the commissioner.
Garbage disposal issues may decrease drastically with the new move, said Urbaser Sumeet CEO Mahmood Sait. “GCC has asked conservancy workers to record houses that do not segregate waste. We will share the data with GCC officials.” Residents and activists are pleased with the POS devices to digitise fines but want the corporation to be strict with enforcement.