Civic body in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar to impose fine on defecating, urinating in open

india

Updated: Nov 17, 2019 10:57 IST

Anyone defecating and urinating in the open in the city limits of Odisha’s capital of Bhubaneswar would be penalised Rs 200 and Rs 150 respectively from Sunday.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said in a notification the penalty would be imposed under Solid Waste Management Bye-Laws, 2018. Nearly a million people live in Odisha’s capital city in an area of 135 square kilometres.

BMC became the third municipal body in the state to impose such penalty for open defecation and urination.

Earlier, the Sambalpur and Berhampur Municipal Corporations had announced penalty for such acts.

While Sambalpur civic body had announced a hefty fine of Rs 500 last year, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation this year had set Rs 10 fine for open urination and Rs 50 penalty for open defecation.

Additionally, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation had set a fine of Rs 1000 for organisations, which failed to keep public toilets clean.

Last month, 24 families in the coastal Ganjam district had been debarred from the public distribution system (PDS) after a gram panchayat decided to stop the benefits from reaching people who were found defecating in open.

The sarpanch of Goutami gram panchayat Sushant Swain served a notice to all the villagers that those who don’t have latrines in their homes would not get their PDS ration.

The Odisha government had declared itself to be open defecation free in September this year. It was one of the worst-performing states in the construction of individual household latrines under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission.