News: MCG issues over 400 notices for violations related to Grap measures-20-12-2020
The civil defence team of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has issued more than 400 notices over the last one month for violations related to Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) rules, said officials on Sunday.
On November 15, the MCG formed civil defence teams to increase surveillance on Grap violations. It is the first time that the civic body has used civil defence teams for this purpose.
Initially, the teams were made up of around 70 volunteers. Over the last two weeks, the number of volunteers in the teams has increased to 600 and so has the issuance of notices.
“Overall, more than 400 notices have been issued by us. Most of them have been issued over the last two weeks following the increase in the number of volunteers and after a more stringent policy was adopted,” said Mohit Sharma, chief warden, civil defence teams, MCG.
Sharma further said that there has been a change in the pattern of surveillance, which has also led to higher enforcement.
“Earlier, we were mainly focusing on looking out for Grap violations at construction sites. Now, we are also focussing on spotting Grap violations at eateries, where the practice of burning wood or coal is common,” said Sharma.
In the notices, civil defence teams attach the photo of the violation as evidence and register the name and address details of the offender. The same is then uploaded on the MCG app, and enforcement wing officials on the ground are alerted about the offence.
Based on the notices, enforcement wing officials visit the site of violation at random, to spot repeat offences and accordingly issue fines.
“The notices serve as a formal warning from the administration that a repeat offence will lead to the issuance of fines and even an FIR. We have observed that, in most cases, after the issuance of notices, the offender does not commit a repeat offence as he or she is wary of the consequences,” said Chahat Sanghvi, consultant, MCG commissioner office.
Sanghvi explained that the notices are the first line of action against Grap violations.
“The MCG has been actively trying to encourage the participation of citizens in the fight against air pollution. We realised that the entire operation should be a collective responsibility and not be solely carried out by a single agency. Hence, the MCG has formed civil defence teams, who have been given formal training by the civic body officials for greater supervision of Grap violations,” said Sanghvi.
The MCG increased its Grap enforcement this month after it realised that there has been a 58% drop in issuance of Grap-related fines.
As per official MCG data, between October 15 and December 1 this year, the MCG had issued only 267 fines for Grap violations. In the same time period last year, the civic bod had issued 643 fines.
