Jamshedpur, Feb. 22: The civic bodies here have started tightening their belts after the steel city was shockingly ranked 66th in the recently conducted nationwide survey ‘Swachh Survekshan 2016.’
Concerned over the situation, the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC), Mango Notified Area Committee and Jugsalai Municipality have started making plans to improve their individual ranking. Plans are also being made to start charging penalty over littering.
Special commissioner (solid waste management) of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) or the Greater Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation, Subodh Yadav interacted with the local urban bodies officials including JNAC, MNAC and Jugsalai Municipality on Saturday. He suggested that if such a situation arrives, the civic bodies must start imposing fines on the local residents.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation senior official, who is on a day’s visit to Jamshedpur to understand the best practices of solid waste management carried out by Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco, asked the officials of the local urban bodies to first spread awareness amongst people about importance of keeping not only their houses, but also the surroundings clean.
Subodh Yadav said that rather than imposing penalty, the residents and institutions should be made aware of the benefits of keeping clean their houses and surroundings through different mediums like interactive events, plays and banners.
If these mediums fail to evince the desired results then there is no other option but to charge penalty. The penalties range from Rs 100 for household and Rs 500 for institution for first offence. The fine can go up to Rs 1 lakh.
A strict mechanism was also the need of the hour in the city, he observed.
Meanwhile, an official of Jugsalai Municipality, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that lack of adequate manpower and infrastructure are posing hurdles. “In most of the localities, there are temples. After mass feasts leftover foods are dumped in public place. It has become a regular affair. With limited workers’ strength, we are not able to pay attention to every corner,” he noted.
“Sanitation workers are found not doing bush cutting, de-silting of drains and lifting of garbage regularly. If they are herded to one place under close supervision of top officials, a visible change can take place,” said a businessman.