In a first for Ahmedabad city, an e-memo was issued by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on April 20 to a Naroda-resident for “spitting chewing tobacco”. On Saturday, the offender Mahesh Kumar paid the fine, which was Rs 100. According to the AMC, Kumar had spat while waiting at a traffic signal at a crossroad on April 5. His vehicle details were obtained from the CCTV footage of the specific crossing. The AMC then sent the memo by post, mentioning that he had violated sections of the bylaws by spitting on the road for public use and thereby polluting it. “By using the ‘automatic number plate recognition’ system in the CCTV footage, details of the vehicle owner were obtained. Thereafter address was obtained from the RTO database. The memo was then dispatched by post on April 20, penalising Mahesh Kumar Rs 100 for the violation,” said the AMC. Meanwhile, Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said that the civic body has deployed solid waste management teams in the city for penalising offenders for spitting on footpaths and other public places. “In the last two months we have seen daily penalty collection go up to Rs 2 lakh, and over the past six months we have collected penalty in crores. However, we realised that penalising offenders on moving vehicles is difficult. But we realised that under the Smart City project, all CCTV feed from across the city are routed to a command and control room where special teams monitor the feed. Three months ago, we had deployed special teams to monitor for such violations,” Nehra said. Nehra also sounded cautious of issuing too many e-memos. “We have seen that only 20 to 25 per cent e-memos issued by the traffic department are paid. We don’t want to repeat the mistake as that only results in a loss to the exchequer,” he added. Meanwhile, an e-memo issued will require to be paid off within seven days. “In case of failure to pay the fine, solid waste management team would visit the address to collect the fine, with a greater penalty amount,” Nehra said.
