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Under new law, littering could land you in jail

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The New Indian Express               27.07.2013

Under new law, littering could land you in jail

Soon you may have to pay a penalty for spitting, urinating, defecating and littering in public places, including bus stands, railway stations, streets, parks and playgrounds.

The government on Thursday tabled the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2013, in the Assembly that lists penalties for these offences.

The Bill tabled by Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad on behalf of Urban Development Minister Vinaykumar Sorake proposes fines from `100 to `5,000 besides three months’ jail for various offences.

The Bill insists that dry waste and wet waste be segregated by households, commercial establishments or anyone generating the waste, according to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2000. This is in the background of high generation of solid waste by the BBMP and other city corporations.

Removal of unauthorised cables, including optical fibre cables, laid on streets or properties is now part of obligatory functions of civic bodies. 

This is in addition to removal of obstructions and projections in or upon streets and other public places that figure in the 1976 Act.

  • Littering, spitting, urinating, open defecating would attract penalty of `100 for first offence.
  • Sewage flow on road, throwing animal carcasses, depositing solid waste or garbage: penalty for subsequent offence is `200.
  • Domestic occupier failing to segregate dry from wet waste and hand it over separately to collector will be fined `100. Bulk generator or commercial complex will pay `500 for first time, and `500 and `1,000, respectively, for subsequent offence.
  • Depositing debris for long: `1,000 for first time and `5,000 for subsequent offence.
  • Any offence committed more than five times can attract a jail term of three months.