Bhubaneswar residents find BMC’s tit-for-tat approach against hotel owner indigestible

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s tit-for-tat approach towards a hotel owner, who was held responsible for the garbage piled up near his shop, hasn’t gone down well with the city dwellers. 

On Thursday, the BMC had carried a tractor-load of garbage and dumped it in front of a hotel located in Kalpana Square area in the very presence of BMC Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange. Justifying their act, the civic body authorities said they had dumped the garbage in front of his hotel because the owner had littered the road. 

Later, the hotel owner cleared the garbage spending from his own pocket, besides coughing up a fine amounting to Rs 20,000. 

But this act of the BMC has not gone down well with the city dwellers. 

“It is the BMC’s ‘dadagiri’. If you found him guilty of littering, you could have cancelled his trade or food license. Instead of that, they dumped garbage in front of his shop which caused inconvenience to nearby shops and their customers.  The BMC is not a court to impose a punishment on a hotelier,” rued Ramesh Mohanty, a Bhubaneswar resident. 

On the other hand, the BMC commissioner termed this act as an example for others. 

“We are providing facilities in Safa Aap. If anyone has garbage, they should inform us so that we can remove them in our special vehicles. Instead of doing that, he (the hotel owner) dumped them on the road. They should understand that the BMC corporators and staff are working tirelessly to keep the city clean.  Even after that, if the hoteliers and businessmen won’t cooperate with us, strong action will be taken against them,” the commissioner had said on Thursday. 

When asked, hotel owner Rajkumar Behera said, “We admit that it was our fault. But the fine collected from us was much more than the mistake committed. It hurts us.”

Now, it is to be seen if the BMC will take the same approach against reputed businessmen or hoteliers.