KMC to charge money from owners for not cleaning garbage

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will charge money from owners of private houses, bodies of housing complexes and authorities looking after government properties for not cleaning garbage from their premises.

This was decided at a high-level meeting held in the office of Borough XI on Wednesday.

Representatives of Boroughs X and XII also attended the meeting. Atin Ghosh, Mayor-in-Council (Health), KMC Commissioner, Director Generals of building, solid waste management also attended the meeting. The Councilors of the Wards under the Boroughs were also present.

A similar meeting will be held on September 22 in the office of Borough XIV. The senior officials of Boroughs XIII, XIV, XV and XVI will attend the meeting.

The meetings are being held as a part of the drives against dengue.

It was decided that the KMC will issue notices under Section 496A of the KMC Act to the owners who fail to clear garbage from their premises. The workers of the solid waste management department of the KMC will clear garbage from the premises and in the case of individual houses, the charges will be added to the property tax.

In case of government properties, the KMC will send the bill to the authorities looking after the buildings.

In case the owners fail to pay the money, the KMC will file cases against them in the Municipal

Court.

In case of individual buildings

where the civic authorities will fail to spot the owners or that are kept under lock and key for years together, the civic authorities in presence of local police will break open the lock and clean the premises.

Senior KMC officials said that unless the individual house owners, authorities and bodies looking after the government buildings and housing complexes clean garbage from the premises, it is impossible for KMC to clean garbage from each and every premise which is the responsibility of the owners.

They further added that to make the anti-dengue drive successful, cooperation from the owners of houses and authorities of institutional buildings is required.

It may be mentioned that the civic authorities are engaging the Durga Puja committees to create awareness against dengue in their respective areas and the best Puja committee will be given cash award.

"It is a collective drive and we seek cooperation from people representing all walks of life," said Atin Ghosh, member, Mayor-in-Council (Health).