DHARMAPURI: Dharmapuri municipality has started a 24x7 patrol routine in the bus stand to address the rising sanitation complaints. The patrol teams would ensure immediate waste collection and prevent encroachments.
The bus stand area is one of the densely populated areas in the town with over 600 businesses and hundreds of people visiting round the clock. Many vendors had encroached the corridors inside the bus stand and roads around it causing severe traffic issues, and sanitation issues. To solve this, the municipality has formed patrols on a 24x7 basis.
Speaking to TNIE, Sanitary Inspector Ramanacharan said, “The Dharmapuri bus stand has two key problems - sanitation and lack of space. The lack of space is due to the encroachments as many of the tenants in our municipality shops and other vendors encroach the bus stand and passengers arriving here are left with no place to wait for the bus. Moreover, these encroachers often dump waste and by the next day when we clean up, the food wastes would have already caused a significant impact.”
Another municipality staff said, “The encroachments around the bus stand have also increased the traffic problems around the bus stand and through this initiative we hope to resolve all problems surrounding the bus stand.”
Municipality Commissioner R Sekar informed, “Our staff will be involved in patrol on three shifts, under which shops failing to uphold the sanitary standards will be fined Rs 1000 and upwards. Encroachments will be fined Rs 5000 and above. The bus stand is for the people and this is our effort to ensure the passengers are properly accommodated.”