Hyderabad: Senior IPS officers participating in the Swachh Telangana-Swachh Hyderabad drive are calling for strict implementation of anti-littering law and new provisions to ensure that “maintaining a clean city is treated as everyone’s job.”
“There is an Act which states that every offender should be fined Rs 100 or so on the first instance. Firstly, the fine amount should be increased when a person repeats the mistake. Secondly, a provision should be added for making eight hours of community service mandatory for those who flout the rules,” said Y. Nagi Reddy, joint CP, special branch.
An effort similar to the traffic police, which monitors offenders using CCTV cameras, will bring good results, officials opined. Reportedly, the idea will be pitched during a meeting of the nodal officers on May 22.
However, residents and welfare associations said that necessary infrastructure should first be put in place, and awareness should be created about the existing laws before taking up any such drive to fine people. Many said that enforcement of the existing Act has failed.
Corruption among the enforcement department of the GHMC is also one of the main reasons, alleged hoteliers and small-scale businessmen, who said that officials seldom gave challans while fining.
General secretary of the Forum for Better Hyderabad O.M. Debara said, “When hardly any people been fined for smoking in public, littering and urinating outside, how will there be a fear of law among the public? We don’t need new laws, proper implementation of existing ones is enough.”
