Clean up cracker residue from outside house or pay Rs 5,500

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 18

Don’t forget to pick cracker residue or candle/diya waste after celebrating Diwali outside your house tomorrow. Not doing so will attract a challan of Rs 5,500.

Mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal has directed MC officials to issue challans for littering.

“People should collect the waste after bursting crackers in a carry bag and dispose it of in dustbins. I have asked officials concerned to form a team for the purpose. Challans will be issued to the occupants of houses outside which waste would be found,” the Mayor told Chandigarh Tribune.

An MC official said, “We will be taking a round of different sectors to check for violations.” 

The Mayor and MC Commissioner Jitender Yadav have also requested residents of the city to celebrate green Diwali by saying no to crackers this time. They said the waste generated during Diwali celebrations such as cracker waste, residue of candles and ‘diyas’ etc. be disposed of in appropriate manner and at designated places.

Meanwhile, the MC decision seems to have not gone down well with the residents. 

Slamming the move, Baljinder Singh Bittu, president of the Federation of Sectors Welfare Association, Chandigarh (FOSWAC), said, “If residents will do this job, then what would MC safaisewaks do? In that case, there is no need for a civic body. It is a dictatorial order. You cannot expect people to start collecting waste after celebrations at night or early next morning. The MC seems to be shrugging off its responsibility. It is trying to make residents do everything as it has totally failed to perform.”

Already, there is less enthusiasm among residents this Diwali after the Punjab and Haryana High Court restricted the bursting of crackers from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm and reducing the number of licences for sale of crackers to 20 per cent of what were issued last year.

3 fined for littering

Three residents of Sector 15 were issued challans after waste/debris was found outside their houses on Wednesday. Two others were issued notices as branches of just-pruned trees were found falling outside their houses.