Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad municipal corporation on Wednesday decided to impose heavy fines on households and commercial establishments over non-segregation of solid waste at the point of generation, and the penalty may extend to even lodging of first information report against the culprits, officials said.
“The decision to levy penalties was taken up by the executive committee of the corporation on Wednesday. It aims at source segregation and also to control the mishandling of solid waste and also to comply with the solid waste handling rules. We will now take up public awareness programmes, and display boards will be set up in different residential wards and also at prominent places,” said Mithilesh Kumar, the corporation’s city health officer.
Source segregation is about separation of dry and wet waste from households/establishments.
In case of households, the civic body will impose a hefty penalty and may even go for scrapping the rebate provided on property tax if they do not take up source segregation of solid waste, officials said, while adding that more penalties were also decided for different types of violations.
Officials said, in case of non-segregation of dry and wet waste in households, penalty of ₹1,000 in the first instance and ₹5,000 in the second instance will be levied, while in the third instance, a penalty of ₹20,000 and scrapping of the rebate provided on property-tax will be effected for two years.
The corporation provides different rebates on early payment of property-tax.
Further, the officials said, a penalty of ₹5,000 in the first instance and ₹10,000 in second instance will be levied against anyone who is found burning garbage or disposing of garbage in public places.
“In the third instance, a penalty of ₹20,000 will be levied, and an FIR will be registered against the erring person. Likewise, storage of solid waste and scrap at non-designated places will also attract penalties, and an FIR will also be lodged. The executive-committee of the corporation has decided upon the provisions as mandated by the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act,” Kumar added.
In case of commercial establishments found indulging in non-segregation of waste at the source, will invite a financial penalty of ₹10,000 in the first instance, ₹50,000 in the second instance, and will face a ₹5 lakh penalty, along with an FIR and cancellation of trade license/food safety license, in the third instance.
Officials said that they have already deployed 710 door-to-door solid waste collection vehicles in 100 residential wards under the corporation’s jurisdiction area. Besides two teams each working in the day and in the night, will check for violations in each of the five zones.
The executive committee of the corporation is composed of 12 members who are elected councillors. The committee evaluates and discusses proposals before they are sent to the corporation board for further action.
Former councillors, however, said that the provision of levy of penalty and actions are subject to the approval of the corporation board.
“The city does not have a designated solid waste processing site in the first place. Second, the corporation levies user charges on the collection of daily solid waste, but their infrastructure is not sufficient to handle it. Heaps of dumps remain scattered on roads and in different places. Further, their vehicles do not have technology to detect dry and wet waste at the source. The penalties and actions are just slapped on residents to hide the corporation’s lack of ability to handle waste,” said Rajendra Tyagi, former councillor from Raj Nagar.
Officials said that wet waste accounts for about 50% of total waste generated and this can be put to uses like manure etc, while the dry waste will be left out. So, handing a lesser volume of waste will be handy, and unscientific disposal will also help reduce polluted surroundings and help reduce instances of garbage burning besides ensuring compliance of legal directions.
The city generates about 1,600-1,800 metric tonnes of daily solid waste, they added.