Penalty amounting in total to about Rs nine lakh has been collected by Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) on debris and construction material placed on the roadsides so far. After a brief gap, the corporation is planning to resume this campaign from next month or later.
According to the Dehradun deputy municipal commissioner, Rohitash Sharma, “The sanitation inspectors from MCD have imposed the penalty on the people who placed their construction materials and debris on the roadsides. MCD seized all the material and after the owner paid the penalty for the material, it was released.
However, in some cases when the owner did not pay the penalty, the seized material was auctioned. In all, the corporation collected about Rs nine lakh in penalty till February 15.” He also added that construction material from many government construction sites was also seized by MCD officials.
Some of them submitted only the partial amount of the imposed penalty, so accordingly some material was returned and the remaining was auctioned. According to Sharma, for now, the team is not active but will be soon resume the campaign in March or later.
It is pertinent to mention here that the MCD had started the drive against construction material and debris on the roadside last year. The drive was initiated following complaints from the public about the debris and construction materials on the roadside and even on parts of the road in some places, disrupting traffic flow and causing inconvenience to the public. The corporation has also made repeated requests to those undertaking activities involving construction materials and debris to desist from placing these on the roadsides or the road. However, the requests have evidently had limited effect so far which is why the MCD is planning to resume this drive from the coming month.