Nashik: Municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe on Saturday said that the civic body would impose a fine of Rs 200 each on citizens if mosquito breeding sites are found at their residences.The civic chief made the announcement during his weekly ‘Walk with Commissioner’ event in view of rising cases of dengue in the city. A total of 494 dengue cases have been reported so far in the city since January.Only last month, the standing committee had turned down the administration’s proposal to impose a fine of Rs 500 on the citizens found guilty of ignoring the safety measures against dengue mosquitoes.Mundhe said the civic administration would go ahead with imposing fines because it is also the responsibility of citizens to ensure that there is no breeding of mosquitoes at their residences.The event was held near the Shree Sharvayeshwar Mahadev temple on Tapovan Road. The citizens raised many grievances through 47 tokens and most of them were resolved by Mundhe by giving instructions to the civic officials.“It is the NMC’s duty to serve citizens, but even they should shoulder the responsibilities. Citizens should also segregate waste at source and hand it over to the garbage collection vans. It is very important for everyone to maintain cleanliness and pay taxes in time. The tax arrears are to the tune of Rs 161 crore, which is hampering the development of the city. The NMC will be laying a 210km drainage line, 60km water pipelines, besides cleaning the gardens and repairing the equipment over there,” he told the gathering.Reacting to Mundhe’s decision to impose fines on citizens, standing committee chairperson Himgauri Aher-Adke said it is the discretion of the municipal commissioner to impose fine up to Rs 200. For any fine more than this, the administration will have to seek the standing committee’s approval.“The Standing committee had rejected the administration’s proposal of Rs 500 fine. The chairperson of the medical assistance and health committee had also given a letter to impose fines. We did not want to levy any charge. But the commissioner is doing it in his authority.”Meanwhile, the grievances of citizens included taking possession of vacant plots by the civic body, garbage at Amardham and unclean toilets, defining the boundaries of Kapila river and putting up signboards.The citizens also raised the issue of developing the Tapovan ground, repairing the door of the library at Chavan Nagar, constructing speed-breakers, inforing tenants about property and water tax, compensation for land given to NMC, removing of the old water tank from Kalaram temple area and encroachments among others.

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