The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner, Anil Kumar, put out a tweet on Thursday, showing that the civic body fined Instakart, a subsidiary of Flipkart, headquartered in Bellandur, Bengaluru. According to the Commissioner, the company was burning garbage on their property and were caught on camera. The company issued a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the BBMP.
“The fine is high, but we believe that it should serve as a deterrent,” Anil Kumar said.
BBMP has fined #Instakart, a subsidiary of @Flipkart, for burning garbage in an open land near their office in #Bellandur Ward 150. The company had been warned earlier too. #BBMP #Bengaluru #BBMPCOMM pic.twitter.com/4wahmqmq9h
— B.H.Anil Kumar,IAS (@BBMPCOMM) November 28, 2019
This is not the first time that the BBMP has cracked down on commercial establishments polluting the city. In an instance earlier this month, the BBMP fined a chicken meat shop for dumping feathers near Varthur, a suburban area in the city. According to the challan issued by the BBMP, the shop was fined for ‘dumping chicken waste’ in the Varthur lake buffer zone area.
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The BBMP also imposes hefty fines for other environment-related offences under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. The fines range from Rs 200 up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh. Violators can be fined for offences such as littering, burning garbage and not segregating garbage, among others. Illegal dumping of construction waste attracts the highest fine, although the penalty is not fixed.
The Bangalore Mirror reported on Tuesday that Lido Mall on MG Road was fined an enormous sum of Rs 3 lakh for disposing of their waste using a vehicle whose license had expired eight months ago. The vehicle driver was also fined an amount of Rs 25,000.
In August, TNM had reported that BBMP would begin levying higher fines for burning garbage and littering the city. This is in a new desperate bid by Bengaluru city’s civic corporation body to tackle the large amounts of waste generated by an ever-burgeoning city.