Litterers Beware! GMC Now Has Cameras Spying On River Channels

GUWAHATI: Fed up with people indiscriminately throwing garbage in the river channels of the city, which become choked in the rainy season and results in flash floods, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has installed CCTV cameras as a last resort.

The solar-powered CCTV cameras will keep a watch on people, to catch them in the act of throwing garbage into the river channels.

GMC commissioner Megha Nidhi Dahal informed that 10 locations on the banks of the Bahini river channel have been covered by the solar-powered CCTV cameras. The Bahini rivulet starts from the Basistha area and flows through thickly inhabited city localities like Rukminigaon and Beltola, and finally joins the Bharalu river near the state zoo on RG Baruah road. The banks of the Bahini are occupied for its entire stretch by houses and it is quite difficult to monitor manually, hence the cameras been installed.

Dahal also added that the CCTV cameras have been placed in locations which have been selected on a priority basis. "Heavy encroachment and practice of throwing garbage in the Bahini have been detected in many locations. Repeated appeals have been made to the people but to no avail. The civic body de-silts the drains and the river channels every year. The practice of throwing garbage into the drains and river channels must be stopped to save the city," he added.

CCTVs will enable the GMC to remotely monitor the areas for such violations and impose heavy penalties on those indulging in them.

Between December last year and March this year, around 1 lakh cubic metres of plastic waste and silt were removed by the civic body from the five river channels and 575 drains of the city. The GMC has been carrying out de-silting of the drains and river channels on a war footing this year too, and the target is to clear 800 km of the drains before the arrival of the monsoon next year.

Around Rs 35 crore will be spent by the GMC for this purpose. Also, several illegal constructions along the banks of the Bahini has also been demolished.

Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, the Public Works Department and the water resource department has joined hands with the civic body to make the 'Mission Flood- free Guwahati' a reality.

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