Pune: Fines for Littering Surge to Rs 3.7 Crore as PMC Ramps Up Vigilance
Pune, 18th December 2024: Despite spending crores annually to maintain cleanliness across the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) continues to face challenges with littering. Public places often fall prey to careless waste disposal by 40,000 to 50,000 citizens annually, posing serious health risks. However, the PMC’s intensified punitive measures over the past few years have yielded results, with fines collected from offenders surging almost eightfold since 2020.
In 2020, the PMC collected ₹40.69 lakh in fines for littering and other sanitation violations. By 2024, this figure skyrocketed to ₹3.7 crore, reflecting the corporation’s heightened efforts to enforce cleanliness. Over the past two years especially, the PMC has ramped up its vigilance and penal actions, hitting violators hard with substantial fines.
Under its public sanitation by-law, the PMC imposes penalties for various violations, including dumping garbage in public spaces, burning waste, urinating in public, failing to segregate garbage, using banned plastics, and feeding pigeons in the city. The by-law, implemented on a large scale over the past two and a half years, also covers noise pollution during construction activities and animal waste management.
Despite awareness campaigns to promote cleanliness, many citizens continue to ignore the rules, leading to stricter enforcement by the PMC. Each ward office has designated teams tasked with monitoring and penalizing violators.
Year-wise Fine Collection:
– 2020: ₹40.69 lakh
– 2021: ₹96.59 lakh
– 2022: ₹1.19 crore
– 2023: ₹1.66 crore
– 2024: ₹3.07 crore
The PMC’s consistent efforts aim not only to penalize but also to deter littering, ensuring a cleaner and healthier city for all residents.
