Gurugram, 19 Dec (IANS): Throwing garbage and debris in public places in Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) area is a punishable offence and action is being taken continuously by the civic body against those doing so.

Under this, along with seizing the vehicle, FIRs are being lodged against the driver and owner in the concerned police stations and heavy fines are also being imposed.

During the last fortnight, action has been taken against 27 vehicles by the Sanitation Security Force (SSF). Out of these, 10 FIRs have been lodged against the owners and drivers of 15 vehicles in different police stations, and a fine of Rs 1.45 lakh has been imposed on the other 12 vehicles.

On Thursday, there was a stir among those illegally dumping garbage and debris, when Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Balpreet Singh himself came down to the field and started taking action.

He visited many places and caught five vehicles dumping garbage or debris on the spot. As soon as Dr Singh reached Sikandarpur Metro Pillar No. 48 while inspecting the area, he found a tractor-trolley and two rickshaw carts dumping garbage on the spot.

He immediately caught all three and lodged an FIR against the tractor-trolley owner and driver in the concerned police station and took action to seize the vehicles.

After this, he reached the Sector 22 market area, where he caught two rickshaw-cart owners dumping garbage. He also instructed the members of the SSF present with him to speed up the action and said that the action against those dumping garbage and debris at public places should be further accelerated, and a zero-tolerance policy should be adopted.

"Sanitation Security Force has been formed to take effective action against those who dump garbage and debris in public places like roadsides, vacant lands, green belts etc in the Municipal area. Members of the force are continuously monitoring different places 24 hours a day and seven days a week," Singh said.