Pune: The round-the-clock surveillance drive to ensure curbing illegal debris dumping has yielded significantly positive results as Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation fined 3,776 violators of Rs1.9 crore since Oct last year.The civic body had appointed two agencies to monitor and act against people dumping debris and construction waste in rivers and public places in the city. A senior PCMC official said all complaints received by the corporation were routed through these agencies, whose staff was also responsible for continuous on-ground monitoring and immediate action against defaulters.The data shared by the PCMC showed that most actions were taken against construction firms for not following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for managing construction and demolition (C&D) waste. A fine of Rs 35.87 lakh was recovered in 488 cases for SOP violations, while Rs 27.23 lakh was collected in 550 cases for dumping debris in public places.Activists said the civic body may have increased enforcement, but the illegal dumping is still prevalent in rivers. Environmental activist Narendra Chugh said, “It’s not just private builders, but even contractors hired by PCMC for road and development projects are involved in illegal dumping. The civic body must first act against its own contractors before targeting others.”A senior PCMC official said action was also taken against 250 violators for violating the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) norms during this period. The PCMC was the first municipal corporation in Maharashtra to implement GRAP last year, joining only a few civic bodies in the country, including Delhi, to do so in a bid to curb pollution.A senior official said due to staff shortages earlier, the corporation could act against only about 20% of the total defaulters and the annual fines were around Rs 40 lakh or less. “After appointing the two agencies, our field-level action has increased significantly. Earlier, limited manpower restricted our enforcement capacity,” the official added.Under the agreement, PCMC retains 40% of the total revenue through fines, while the remaining 60% goes to the two appointed agencies. “Our objective is not to generate revenue, but to instill discipline among citizens and curb violations. With stronger on-ground enforcement, the deterrence against offenders has become more visible,” the official added.
