Erode man haggles over Rs 500 fine, ends up paying Rs 5,000

The Erode Corporation has made the city ‘bin free’ to encourage people to follow source segregation and source collection by staff at the doorstep of houses and commercial establishments. Multiple teams have been tasked with the monitoring exercise to prevent people from dumping garbage in the open and also levy fines on the violators.

The Corporation’s 4th zone Sanitary Inspector Gopalakrishnan, who was on a routine inspection at Mosikeeranar Street in Erode on Wednesday found Sivasundarajan dumping the waste generated from his printing press into the open drain resulting in its blockage.

The Corporation official immediately slapped him with a penalty of Rs 500 for the offence. However, he refused to pay the penalty and also broke into a heated quarrel with the sanitary inspector.

On receiving information about the development, the other city health wing officials rushed to the spot and later informed the Erode Town police too. After police took up the issue against Sivasundarajan for abusing and preventing a government servant from discharging his duties, he fell in line and profusely apologised for his act. Thereafter, he was let off by withdrawing the police complaint, but was imposed with a higher penalty of Rs 5,000.