In its drive to create cleanliness awareness, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday will begin putting up 100 hoardings and banners across the city with messages against littering.
The boards will also tell the people the fine they have to pay if they violate the rules.

From Thursday, clean-up marshals will be on the roads to make sure the cleanliness rules are being followed. They will slap a fine if they catch people littering the streets.
The entire campaign will focus on the menace of littering.

"The campaign will edu cate people on various issues like not spitting or throwing garbage on the roads," said Additional Municipal Commissioner R.A. Rajeev. "If they do, they will have to pay a fine."
The civic body has also tied up with Frequency Modulation (FM) channels, which will also campaign against littering.

"The FM channels would also urge people not to litter," said Rajeev.

There are 24 categories where people would be fined for not maintaining cleanliness. The fines range from Rs 100 to Rs 20,000.

Civic marshals are nuisance detectors who have been authorised to fine the citizens for dirtying the city.

For the first time, the BMC has entrusted the job of enforcing cleanliness on private security agencies. This week, five agencies will take up the job and they will have the powers to fine people if they litter.

Each of the 25 wards will have a minimum of 25 marshals and it would be their responsibility to maintain cleanliness in their ward.

Mayor Shubha Raul has lent her support to the idea of cleansing the city.

"It is high time, we gave importance to cleanliness and fined defaulters," said Raul.

The BMC's drive for segregation of wet and dry garbage for households has not yielded desired results. Now, the civic marshals will have to take care of that too.

After landfills are ready, the civic body will start implementing the segregation rules of dry and wet garbage.

The BMC, however, will not be spending anything to enforce the entire exercise.

The revenue collected would be shared equally between the agencies and the civic body. naresh.kamath@hindustantimes.com THE PRICE THEY WILL PAY There are 24 categories under which people will be fined for littering. The fines range from Rs 100 to Rs 20,000.

200 Rs littering/spitting/u rinating on roads 100 Rs bathing/defecating on roads 1,000 Rs washing vehicles on roads 500 Rs for housing societies not segregating dry and wet garbage 20,000 Rs for hospitals for not segregating bio-medical waste 20,000 Rs for not separating construction and demolition waste 500 Rs for vendors without a wastebasket 200 Rs for unclean house gullies 500 Rs for pet litter 500 5,000 to Rs illegal display of posters, hoardings Around the world SINGAPORE Chewing gum at stations or on trains attracts fines of up to $500. Dropping larger items like newspapers or cans is punishable with up to $1,000 or a community work order.

LONDON Dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets face fines of up to £1,000. People found littering are fined between £50 and £80.

PARIS Littering in Paris has set fines ranging from $50 to $1,000. The law also requires a person convicted for littering to spend eight to 16 hours picking up litter.

Publication : HT; Section : Metro; Pg : 5; Date : 12/11/07