Mobile court,a step towards sanitation in public places

A specially designed AMTS bus has been prepared for housing the mobile court,complete with a magistrate and other officials. It will have a prisoner van and a police vehicle in tow. The prisoner van will be used to house persons who fail to pay the fines.

The entire AMC limits will come under the jurisdiction of this court. A provision for a mobile court was announced in the civic budget,but the idea could not be implemented for some reason or the other. But now that the appointment of a magistrate has been cleared,the launch is less than a week away.

Dr S P Kulkarni,Medical Officer (Health),AMC,said the court will move in different areas of the city in two shifts from 9 in the morning to 12 noon and 1 to 7 in the afternoon. The locations are being worked out.

Municipal Commissioner I P Gautam said: “If the experiment succeeds,this will be expanded further in consultation with the state government.”

The fines and other penalties have been worked out for various types of civic offences ranging from littering to other undesirable

activities on public roads and public places.

Similar attempts initiated in the past failed to meet with the desired success due to certain inherent limitations,and had to be abandoned midway. One major hitch was that after catching an offender,a complaint would have to be filed and the regular court would then be moved against the offender. This was time consuming and resulted in the cases dragging on and on.

But spot penalties are expected to accelerate the pace of trials and bring to a quick conclusion the action that needs to be taken.

Gautam said there was no provision for a court earlier and the launch of the mobile court should send the right signal among the habitual offenders and change the city landscape considerably.

The fines structure has also been made flexible with a scope for revision in the future in accordance with the demands of the situation,Gautam said. In the past,fines up to Rs 500 had been charged from those found dirtying public places.