KOHIMA — Rampant dumping of household and commercial waste in drains could prove costly for citizens of Nagaland's capital city, as the Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) has recently issued orders, asking local authorities to monitor and penalise defaulters.
Amid rapid urbanisation, the capital city continues to face sanitation challenges, particularly in the segregation of dry and degradable wastes, as well as waste management.
While the KMC has taken the lead in promoting cleanliness through awareness campaigns and waste management initiatives, including incentivising an annual cleanliness challenge to encourage cleanliness in the city, many seem to lack civic sense as the issue of improper waste disposal persists in various areas.
The amount of waste seen in storm drains across Kohima indicates that citizens are yet to realise that addressing the growing waste requires more than the efforts of the municipal council or local administrative bodies, and that collective community effort is required to solve the menace. Amid waste crisis, the KMC had issued an order warning that “dumping of waste in drains, vacant plots, blocking of drain and littering during construction activities are all deemed as illegal”.
It reiterated that wastes should be disposed either in sanitation vehicles or at designated commercial waste collection points only. It also directed all the ward panchayats or councils and ward, colony, or sector sanitation committees to check illegal dumping of garbage in drains, littering, and blocking of drains due to construction activities.
The KMC also fixed a penalty of INR 1000 for first offence, INR 2000 for the second, and INR 3000 for the subsequent offence, instructing the ward panchayats/councils and ward, colony, or sector sanitation committees to maintain records by issueing proper receipts.
While directing them to submit a month-wise report in December every year, the KMC said that the collected amount (fines) would be utilised for meeting expenses related to cleanliness within the ward, colony, or sector.