India’s monuments, roads and public transport are painted red with people bringing out their inner artists by unabashedly spitting ‘Gutkha’ or paan wherever they find it convenient. Maybe, other cities can learn from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) which, in a bid to keep Pune’s streets clean, has started punishing people spitting on roads by making them clean the spit. The decision to take the additional punishment, besides levying fines on offenders, as the authorities found that only monetary fines were not adequate to check the menace of spitting.
Dnyaneshwar Molak, the solid waste management department chief at (PMC), told PTI,
“In the last eight days, PMC sanitation inspectors caught around 156 people while they were spitting on streets. All of them were made to clean their spit immediately and a fine of Rs 150 was imposed on each of them.”
According to Molak, the objective behind the punishment is to shame people by making their clean their own spit so that the next time they will think twice before spitting on the streets. The initiative was launched last week in five wards of Bibwewadi, Aundh, Yerawada, Kasba and Ghole Road.
In the 2018 Swachh Survekshan (cleanliness) survey, Pune was ranked the 10th cleanest city whereas Indore was on the top. Ahead of the 2019 survey, PMC is aiming for the top position. The civic body also used to observe the Anti-Spitting Day in the past and they plan to resume it now. According to Molak,
“The drive will initially start on a daily basis but once sufficient awareness is created, it can be limited to one particular day.”
