Maharashtra govt's new anti-spitting law: Offenders to sweep govt offices, pay upto Rs 5,000 fine

In a bid to keep the city streets cleaner, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday approved an anti-spitting law. If you now decide to spit on the streets, you will be fined Rs 1,000 and will have to spend a day performing community service at a public office or a government office, reported The Times of India.  However, this is for first-time offenders, and the punishment and fine is higher for repeat offenders. For a second-time offender, the fine will be Rs 3,000 plus three-day community service, and for repeat offenders the fine will be Rs 5,000 plus five-day community service. Maharashtra will become becomes the first state in India to get an anti-spitting law if cleared by the Assembly. The state government has been planning to have a proper law in place for quite some time now. [caption id=“attachment_2299118” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maharashtra becomes the first state to get an anti-spitting law. Image courtesy: Flickr[/caption] Deepak Sawant, state Public Health Minister told The Indian Express,“We had to bring in a punishment that would shame the offenders and hurt their ego. Simply paying a penalty is not enough deterrent. Offenders pay the paltry amount, and often don’t think twice before repeating the act. So, we decided to bring in compulsory community service.” The report said that offenders will be given a broom and asked to sweep a state government office or hospitals or a school. The law has been in the making for a few months now and Sawant said that the law will be in force in the next six months. “A law against spitting in public places is already in existence and in Mumbai, the BMC acts against people who spit in public. But it is not that effective,” Sawant had said in January 2015, pointing to a rise in the number of cases of tuberculosis. “We will also check if we can suspend driving licence of a taxi or auto driver who spits in public places like roads. We will make the legislation effective so that there will be a deterrent for people who indulge in such activity,” the minister had said. The new law is a precursor to banning chewing tobacco in public. Experts said an effective anti-spitting law will bring down incidences of airborne diseases. “It will also affect the tobacco-chewing habit as people will be restrained from spitting out tobacco. This is a move towards a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr A Bamne, executive health officer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Even if this is the first attempt by the state government to make Mumbai a spit-free zone, earlier efforts by the BMC and the Maharashtra government have not been too fruitful. As early in 2007, the BMC had deployed ‘cleaning marshals’ to keep spitters, those who litter, tobacco chewers in check. But the scheme came under a lot of flak over its implementation. Soon, complaints started pouring in against the ‘clean-up marshals.’ Political interference, high-handedness of the marshals and corruption rendered the the entire system useless, an article in _Firstpost_ said. Dr Sawant, however, reassured that there would be no political intervention with the anti-spitting law. “The committee will suggest who will be the implementing authority at various places and how to collect the fines. For instance, in Mumbai city, BMC commissioner will be the in-charge, but traffic police or police could be authorized to collect fine on the roads,” The Times of India quoted the health minister as saying.