DNA

• Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will soon form a squad to catch people spitting, urinating and throwing garbage on streets

Bangalore, Nov 20: On the lines of Mumbai’s clean-up marshals, Bangalore will soon have “litter cops”, who will catch people messing up the tech city and fine them on the spot.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP’s) concept, though, is not motivated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

The “litter cops” will patrol the city, which produces over 2,000 metric tonnes of waste everyday, to catch people spitting, urinating and throwing garbage on streets.

Whoever is caught littering on camera will be fined up to Rs 5,000, municipal commissioner S Subramanya told DNA.

Second-time offenders and those failing to pay the fine within 15 days of the offence will be sent their photographs in the act as reminders.

The project is expected to be implemented by year-end. “We are in talks with the Bangalore Territorial Army to form a squad (for the purpose),” the commissioner said.

The need for such a squad was felt when the BBMP incurred an additional expense of Rs2 lakh to clean up the Chinnaswamy stadium after the India-Australia one-day cricket match on September 29.

“There are Acts in place to punish offenders, but no system to catch them. This initiative is to catch them while committing offences,” Subramanya explained.

Bangaloreans are all for the initiative inspired by similar practices in London, New York and Bangkok and do not want their city to go the Mumbai way.

“Bangalore is much cleaner than Mumbai. But at this rate of littering, it could become as dirty as Mumbai in the next five years. Of course, no one will learn to keep the city clean unless there is fear of punishment. As such, the move is practical,” said Prasad Katti, an electronics engineer.

Soon, the BBMP will lay guidelines to impose fines for road-crossing, damaging or riding on footpaths and damaging government property. “This is not a revenue-generating move, but one focused on maintaining the hygiene of the city,” Subramanya said.