Corporation Commissioner Gaurav Kumar inspecting a shop which had stocked banned plastics in Madurai on Friday.
With the single objective of giving a facelift to the ancient city - Madurai - the Corporation officials have swung into action to keep the city clean and green.The drive, which commenced in June, had so far witnessed little changes for good, the officials said.Every day, the teams, including the Commissioner Gaurav Kumar and other senior officers, have been visiting the five zones. Primarily they look for violations and unclean eco-system in establishments like the restaurants, slaughter houses and at roadside vendors.The drive in the integrated bus stand in Mattuthavani has fetched some positive results in the last 30 days of sustained monitoring.Recently, when the Commissioner stepped inside the shops, he found banned plastics in use by some shops. They were not only seized, but the officials gave a counselling to the shopkeepers about the consequences to the eco-system and the legal action.Along with the cleaning activities, the civic body had also sealed a few shops and commercial buildings for not remitting property tax and rental to the Corporation. “If the property owners do not cooperate, the civic body will take stern action as per the laws,” a revenue officer said.The Commissioner’s visit along the by-pass road has also been welcomed by the residents. The long stretch has not only become cramped at every 50 metres, but also become unsafe for motorists and pedestrians. Not only the roadside vendors, but even the shops selling food neglected the unsafe methods of disposal of the leftover food. This had led to polluting the entire stretch.The civic body has also increased the number of dog catching vehicle from three to five and the added wards in the city have become the targets. The health department monitored the dogs at the observation centre and after sterilisation, they were let off, an official said.In June and July, the Corporation had seized 724.32 kilograms of banned plastics from the shopkeepers. A fine of ₹10.70 lakh was collected during the drive. For those who dumped waste in public places and urinated in open space were also fined with ₹9.06 lakh.In a bid to keep the eco-system intact, the officials also fined ₹63,400 from smokers for smoking in public places, especially near hospitals and schools. Likewise, they also collected fines to the tune of ₹85,000 from people for pasting posters in public places during the last two months.In all, they had carried out 3,843 checks and collected ₹21.25 lakh from the violators. Such a pro-active enforcement would continue and the Commissioner had warned people for digging roads without authorisation which caused potholes in many stretches, which were laid recently.Welcoming the action by the civic body, the activists have appealed to the public to cooperate with the authorities and obey the law. Published - August 07, 2026 08:53 pm IST
