SHILLONG: Now, think twice before you litter on the streets here. You may end up losing as much as Rs 5000 for it!
Yes, littering the streets is now a crime in the city with many offenders already booked under the Meghalaya Police Act where they ended up paying the hefty fine.
Speaking on the matter, East Khasi Hills superintendent of police Davis Marak said that Shillong police are a part of the supervisory committee on cleanliness of the city and their job is to enforce law when people commit crimes like littering.
“We are taking action against such people by arresting them or imposing fines on them,” he said.
Marak said the police have made pamphlets to create awareness on the matter and that they were being circulated among local and tourist taxis and even buses. “Besides different police stations are also conducting awareness programmes,” he said.
“We have not gone all out as yet. We are giving time to people to be aware about cleanliness. Later we will be very stringent on the matter,” the SP said.
Meghalaya police got more teeth to act against the people who throw garbage after the State government extended the jurisdiction of Section 110 of the Meghalaya Police Act, 2010 to the district headquarters and sub-divisional headquarters to enable the state police to deal with cases of public nuisance in rural areas of the state too.
Meanwhile, in its continuous efforts to keep the city clean, the Shillong Sadar Police station has within a week registered seven cases of littering while 20 people were booked and action is being initiated against them under Section 102 of the Meghalaya Police Act where each violator would have to pay a fine of Rs 5000.
Most of the persons booked under Section 102 of the Meghalaya Police Act were picked up from Butcher Road while they were caught washing vehicles in violation of the order issued recently by the East Khasi Hills SP.
East Khasi Hills police took the initiative of keeping the city clean together with the Shillong Municipal Board.
Though Sadar Police Station has gone all out to make the city clean, the other police stations too are not lagging behind. With Section 110 of the Act extended to all district headquarters and sub divisions, it has now given powers to all to follow the footsteps of what East Khasi Hills police is doing.
Under Section 110 of the Act, the Sadar Police Station has also registered eight cases related to drinking in public places and creating nuisance.
