Can We Expect a Clean Hyderabad After this New Strict Rule?

Scattering in public places, urinating in the open place and sticking posters on walls could now fetch you a penalty via e-challan, as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) and Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) wing has taken a leaf out of the Hyderabad traffic police’s book to penalize lawbreakers in the city.

This makes the GHMC one of the first municipal corporations in India to circulate fines online to those sanitation rules.

An app was introduced, named ‘CEC’ to issue e-challans to the offenders, which is been in use for a month now. It is presently limited to EVDM authorities but will be extended to all the GHMC zones by the end of December. It will be in the public domain by 2021 April, said EVDM director Viswajit Kampati and GHMC mayor Bonthu Rammphan.

About 20 teams of the EVDM have been using the app and so far, 1,084 e-challans that are 30-35 per day have been issued, with fines amounting up to 1.50 crore. Of the offenders, 15-20 percent have paid their penalties online.

For instance, if a building owner or a contractor dump construction material illegally, then EVDM team would click pictures and upload them on the app, and an automated challan with the recommended fine for the violation would then be generated and the violator will be penalized.