Kiran Bedi issues a "final warning" to residents and shop owners who dumped garbage into drains in Puducherry

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Sunday issued a "final warning" to residents and shop owners who threw garbage into drains, hitting the free flow of rainwater. After holding a meeting with officials concerned at her office, Bedi, in a WhatsApp message, said municipal inspectors will come down heavily on violators. 

"At least 100 persons will be fined daily for dumping garbage into recently desilted drains. The drive starts Monday," she said.

The Lt Governor, who has been focussing on 'Clean and Green Puducherry', said she had asked the local administration department director and municipal commissioners to ensure that no shop owners or residents in the town limits threw garbage into the drains. 

Bedi, who had cancelled the visit to her native place on Diwali to ensure that 'Operation Garbage' and desilting of drains were zealously implemented, held meetings with the field staff of PWD to ensure that they were present in their work spots. 

Meanwhile, Revenue Minister M.O.H.F. Shahjahan held a meeting with officials of the Department of Revenue and Disaster Management and prepared an action plan to rise to any exigency.   

Read: Kiran Bedi Led Water Rich Puducherry Initiative Completes 200 Weeks

Earlier in October, Kiran Bedi instigated a clean-drive on a beach in Puducherry on her morning stroll. Stumbling upon a littered beach, Bedi promptly, made phone calls to concerned authorities to be deployed on the beach and take over the space to make as tidy as the road. Bedi urged the presence of Municipality services to be positioned on the beach to penalise littering people 

“If they (violators) do not pay the fine their challans to be sent to the court for issuing summons to them," she added

As she herself immediately wore her gloves, grabbed trash bins and began cleaning up the beach with volunteers of Raj Nivas helping her around, she even ordered to station officials at night to spot people drinking on the beach and immediately should be put in the Police van and booked in. 

She further told the responsible authorities, “Now all you need is a beach security plan, this should become one more beach round the clock. So the beach should be a beach.”

Earlier on October 2, India celebrated its second 'Swacchta Diwas' after the drive was initiated by PM Modi on October 2, 2014, on the occasion of Gandhi's birth anniversary. It was inspired by Gandhiji's principles of 'Satyagraha', 'Ahimsa' and 'Swacchta' and aims at making cleanliness a way of life globally. 

(With inputs from PTI)