Littering fine in Kolkata can go up to Rs 1 lakh

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KOLKATA: Throwing garbage, littering the road, in Kolkata can impose penalty ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh. An amendment to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act was passed in the Bengal Assembly on November 22, 2018. The maximum fine has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh and the minimum fine from Rs 50 to Rs 5,000.

Sources informed that those places which are not assigned as a waste dumping site or a vat by the civic body can activate the penalty if been littered.

A Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) official said that after the chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed a concern that many people had spat out betel juice on the Dakshineswar skywalk within 24 hours of its inauguration.

The amended Section 338 of the act reads: “Whoever deposits or throws or causes or permits to be deposited or thrown any solid waste on any place in contravention of the provisions of this Act shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than five thousand rupees and more than one lakh rupees.”

An official clarified the amendment did not mean a KMC inspector could decide the fine. A notice will be issued and the matter forwarded to the municipal court, which will decide the quantum of the fine.