The East Coast Railway (ECoR) will be implementing an updated set of fines on railway passengers for violating regulations related to cleanliness and hygiene. Commuters will have to pay heavy penalties for littering, spitting, urinating, defecating, defacing railway property, washing clothes, vehicles, and utensils, encroaching and unauthorized sticking bills.
Similarly, retailers and sellers will be penalized if they fail to render basic arrangements like dry and wet dustbins and for using plastic below 50 microns, complying with plastic waste rules. Depending on the nature of the offense, penalties ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 5000 will be imposed on defaulters.
This is the first time that an even penalty pattern will be implemented across all stations of ECoR, as opposed to previous category-wise segregation. The revised penalties will be implemented from Monday to ensure orderliness on railway premises.
“The new penalty provisions are being imposed to ensure Swachh Bharat Mission on railway premises, Municipal Solid Waste Rule-2016 and implement the polluter pays principle following the NGT directive across all stations,”
said a railway spokesperson.
In 2017-18, around 9300 people were fined and more than 10,000 people were penalized in 2018-19. In the current financial year, 8,231 passengers have been penalized until December.