A day after the Karnataka High Court took Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) to task for lagging behind in implementing Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and other measures for disposal of municipal solid waste as per law, the civic body said on Wednesday that it will begin imposing fines on apartments, houses, commercial and other establishments if segregated garbage is not handed over to it from October 11.
Addressing a press conference, Mayor Diwakar and Corporation Commissioner Akshy Sridhar said that people will have to segregate the solid waste at source from October 1 itself. The civic body will give a “grace period” of 10 days from October 1 for people to adhere to the system. Later it will impose fines as per the Solid Waste Management and Sanitation Bye-laws, 2019, of the corporation.
The Mayor said that earlier the civic body had appealed to the people a number of times to segregate waste at source. But people have not taken it seriously. The corporation had held several meetings with bulk waste generators and had also demonstrated to them various methods of processing solid waste at source. Though the civic body had taken steps to impose fine six months ago it was shelved due to COVID-19 reasons. Now people will have to segregate waste in all 60 wards.
Mr. Sridhar said that the fine for residents and street vendors varied from a minimum of ₹1,500 to a maximum of ₹5,000. Bulk waste generators can be fined from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000. If anybody is found throwing solid waste in open public place a fine ranging from ₹1,500 to ₹25,000 can be imposed. If bio-medical waste is mixed with the solid waste the civic body will impose a fine from ₹10,000 to ₹25,000. In case of dumping building waste in open place ₹25,000 can be imposed as fine.
The Commissioner said that wet waste will be collected every day. But dry waste will be collected only on Fridays starting from October 2.
Mr. Sridhar said that if waste generators did not heed the appeal, the corporation will be forced to file cases against them.
