CHENNAI: Moving swiftly on its plan to use digital devices to levy fine for improper garbage and other solid waste disposal, the Greater Chennai Corporation has activated 70 point-of-sale devices and collected fines from 289 persons in a short time.
In all, Rs 5 lakh has been collected as fine, said the civic body commissioner.
In its last council meet, the Corporation revised the penalty for dumping garbage and also for failure to segregate waste before handing it over to the cleanliness workers.
The penalty for dumping waste was increased 10-fold to Rs 5,000 from the earlier Rs 500, while those who burn waste in both private and public places was revised to Rs 5,000 from Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, respectively.
According to Chennai Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran, the civic body has received 468 point of sale (PoS) devices – the machine that are used in shops to collect payments using cards or UPI – from the Indian Overseas Bank levying spot fine. Of these, 70 devices were activated, which have so far done 289 transactions amounting to a total of Rs 5 lakh.
“The drive will be intensified,” said the Commissioner.
Earlier, explaining the reason for using PoS devices to collect spot fine, the official had said, “Previously, officials were using bill book, which was not transparent, as no data was maintained. There was no real-time data found. So, we’ve initiated this method to impose a spot fine against the individual."