HYDERABAD: Littering in public places, urinating in the open and sticking posters on walls could now fetch you a penalty via an e-challan, as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) wing has taken a leaf out of the Hyderabad traffic police’s book to penalise offenders in the city. This makes the GHMC one of the first municipal corporations in India to issue fines online to those flouting sanitation rules.
An app named ‘CEC’ has been developed to issue e-challans to offenders, and has been in use for a month now. It is presently limited to EVDM authorities, but will be extended to all six GHMC zones by the end of December. It will be in the public domain by April next year, said GHMC mayor Bonthu Rammphan and EVDM director Viswajit Kampati.
About 20 teams of the EVDM wing have been using the app, and so far, 1,084 e-challans (30-35 per day) have been issued, with fines amounting to `1.50 crore. Of the violators, 15-20 per cent have paid their penalties online, Kampati added.
For instance, if a building owner/contractor dumps construction material illegally, an EVDM team would click pictures and upload them on the app. An automated challan with the prescribed fine for the violation would then be generated and the violator penalised.
One month to pay fines
Violators have to pay fines via credit or debit cards or online payment systems as cash is not accepted. Further, they would have to clear their dues within a month, or the officials concerned would get a notification
Once an e-challan is issued, it would not be possible to alter, edit or delete it, and there is little room for allegations of discrepancies, as not only the nature of the violation, but also the location will be shown. The penalty will have to be paid as prescribed in the GHMC Act.
For each case, a QR code and unique code is allotted, and if the fee is not paid within the stipulated time, a reminder gets triggered in the system, wherein the case starts blinking on the app.
Bonthu Rammohan said that as part of providing a clean environment to citizens, it would be necessary to check littering, dumping of construction and demolition waste, wall-writing, and erecting of banners. The GHMC has initiated steps to fine offenders through e-challans, using pre-filled forms with categories for offences, and corresponding fines to be levied. These include details of the offence with photos and videos.
Some of the advantages of the new system are that it minimised contact, is foolproof, and entries cannot be edited or deleted, he said. Once a challan is generated, a copy is served on the offender. The director said that till now, 1,823 notices were issued with regard to hospitals complying with fire safety measures.