The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Monday took a firm step towards preventing littering in India by decreeing that people throwing garbage in public places would pay fines of Rs 10,000.
The stern directive of the Tribunal might bring some hope that our countrymen could feel compelled to create a cleaner place. The directive has sought to include all the various sections of society that are involved in dumping waste in public places.
To this end it has included people, hotels and slaughter houses among those in the ambit of entities liable to pay “environmental compensation” for every “default”.
The fine of Rs 10,000 is a great boost in the battle against a garbage-strewn country as the penalty amount is bound to pinch a majority of people. NGT must thus be lauded for raising the penalty from the ridiculous figure of Rs 50 mandated by the archaic and futile anti-littering law of 2009 to the present Rs 10,000.
The bench has adhered to the “polluter pays” principle while issuing the directive. As such, it said that each person would be liable to pay for pollution. It highlighted that it is the duty of a citizen to ensure that waste is handled properly and not to cause any pollution.
The tribunal’s action is a welcome step.
Garbage swamps public places, including roads, parks, rail stations, hospitals and other open spaces, all across our country. Most water bodies have turned into repositories of garbage. Even the drains are clogged with waste.
While this could be the ‘stick’ policy of NGT, there is no sight of the carrot in this decree. People in this country cannot always be faulted for littering the countryside. There exists no public waste disposal system visible anywhere throughout the length and breadth of India. Litter bins are invisible, even in metropolises.
Public conveniences are few and far in between. Municipal solid waste is one of the most serious problems regarding pollutants in the country. The NGT’s directive that all authorities are under “statutory” obligation to ensure that waste is “collected, transported and disposed off” in a manner that does not cause public health hazards deserves much greater stress.
It is important that public utilities like municipalities and other urban development bodies are made to create waste reprocessing facilities at a war footing. Requisite infrastructure needs to be built to handle collection and disposal/management of waste, both solids and liquids. For this end to be achieved, governmental intervention is essential. Without these back end problems being sorted, it will be pointless to penalise the citizen.
No doubt the garbage that lies all over is a major source of disease in India. Despite this, there is no response from the authorities anywhere. It may be noted that we, as citizens, do not make any efforts to avoid dirt and filth.
Although waste management should be a government job, it is also imperative that we Indians take this issue seriously. Our role may not be relegated to the back ground. Once the populace notices and wants to avoid garbage, the job gets done easier. Without public support, no Swachh Bharat can ever be successful.
That program, launched by our Prime Minister, seemed attractive and praiseworthy in the beginning. However, once the cess was imposed it became evident that the government was taking upon itself the onerous task of cleaning the country top to bottom on its own.
That it has failed completely has been noticed by every single individual in this country. Once any kind of tax is levied by the government, it is obviously the sole responsibility of the government to execute the work.
Responsibility shifts away from the citizen. That was a great mistake as far the Swachh Bharat program is concerned. Hopefully NGT’s directives are accepted in a positive manner by the people who should take the initiative to keep their own environment neat and clean.