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Litter, spit in public places? Get ready to pay fines

Fines will also be imposed on those who urinate in non-designated locations and throw trash out from their car windows.

Itanagar: The Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC), while complying with the directions of the High Court, has announced that it will now start imposing fines on those who throw garbage on the roads and litter in public places.

Announcing the development, IMC mayor Tame Phassang said the corporation adopted the bye-laws on solid waste management as directed by the High Court during its 10th business meeting on Wednesday.

“With the adoption of the bye-laws, the IMC will now start imposing fines on those people who litter in public places or any other public institutions. Fines will also be imposed on those who spit in public places and urinate in non-designated locations. Those who are caught throwing trash like bottles or plastic wrappers from their cars will also be penalized,” Phassang said.

The Itanagar Bench of the Gauhati High Court had in May directed the IMC to impose fines on those who throw garbage on roads and create or aggravate solid waste pollution in the city under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The court had in its order directed the head of the town planning and urban local bodies department, the deputy commissioners of Itanagar Capital Region and Papum Pare district, IMC commissioner and the mayor to sit for a joint meeting to make an endeavor to ensure that the corporation takes necessary action according to the prescribed rules.

App launch: Mayor Phassang on the day also launched ‘IMC-101’, a mobile application, through which the people of the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) can now avail several services of the corporation sitting at the comfort of their houses.

The citizens can now lodge complaints with regards to unattended garbage, give suggestions to the IMC and avail various other public utility related services through the app.

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“The motive behind launching the application was to provide the services of the IMC at the fingertips of the public. Once a person files a complaint about unattended garbage our team in the control centre will divert the nearest garbage trucks to the point/area of the complainant so that the garbage can be collected and transported to a solid waste treatment facility,” Phassang said.

The application is available for download for both Apple iOS and android users.