BMC fined 63 for defecating openly in last two weeks

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which had declared the city open defecation free (ODF), has now found that nearly five people are defecating in the open daily. In last 13 days, the civic body has fined 63 people for defecating in the open and collected a fine of Rs 63,000 from them.

In December 2016, Mumbai was announced ODF by the Centre. Despite this, the BMC has collected a fine of Rs 63,000 from 63 people for defecating in the open during the period from June 18 to 30. The maximum fine of Rs 10,000 was collected from Byculla (E ward), followed by F-South (Parel, Naigaum) with Rs 7,600 and K-East ward (Andheri East) with Rs 6,400.

“To make the city ODF, the BMC has made available public toilets in large numbers at places where people are defecating in open. We also ran an extensive public awareness campaign asking people to use toilets. Despite this, we found that people are still defecating in open at some places. To prevent this, the civic body decided to penalise them from June 17,” said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner.

The Centre has laid down three conditions for making the city ODF: constructing toilets within 500 metres of residential areas, creating public awareness about use of toilets and penalising people for defecating in the open. Accordingly, the BMC has decided to fine people Rs 100 for open defecation.