Mumbai News: BMC Imposes Over ₹1 Crore In Penalties On Polluters Under 'Swacch Angan' Initiative

Mumbai: In the past five months, the BMC has swooped on polluters, slapping 3,498 notices and imposing penalties of more than Rs1 crore. Spanning from November 4, 2023, to April 3, the action was taken under 'Swachh Angan' (clean premises) initiative. It aims to prevent burning garbage and dumping construction and demolition debris on roads.

After the city's air quality went on a downward spiral last year, the BMC started cracking down on those violating the cleanliness and sanitation bylaws, 2006. As per rules, the offenders, either owner or tenant of the premises, have been fined in the range of Rs1,000 to Rs10,000.

BMC's Penalties and Challenges

As per the official data, the BMC slapped penalties on 2,282 defaulters under ‘Swachh Angan’ initiative in the past five months, recovering a penalty of Rs55.92 lakh.

Similarly, the second-highest number of complaints were against illegal dumping of construction and demolition debris on roads. The civic body has collected Rs42.54 lakh in 715 cases during this period. “The BMC has a debris on-call service for lifting and disposing construction waste up to 300 metric tonnes at nominal charges. Still, several cases of dumping debris on roads were registered in the civic wards. Preventing such incidents has been a challenge because the rubble is dumped at public places mostly at night,” said a civic official.

Most Cases Registered In H West Ward And H East Ward

The BMC has also acted against contractors for not covering dumpers carrying construction and demolition materials with tarpaulin, and burning garbage. The maximum cases related to air pollution have been registered in wards – H West (Bandra West to Santacruz West) and H East (Khar East to Bandra East).