Despite the escalating country-wide cleanliness drive, municipal officials in Delhi have reported that hygiene levels in the city will not see any real change till the long overdue sanitation bye-laws come into effect.

Apparently, the final draft of the Delhi Cleanliness and Sanitation Bye-Laws were sent to the state government by the three municipal corporations in September 2013, but they have still not been notified a year later. In fact, the first draft of the bye-laws was sent in April 2012 and was returned to the civic bodies for changes a year later in April 2013. The officials were informed that the bye-laws would require an amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

The bye-laws propose hefty fines against litterbugs, which officials say will deter Delhiites from throwing garbage on the streets or outside their homes and are ‘an essential ingredient for making the Swachh Bharat campaign a success’. Further, while citizens are being fined Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 for bad sanitation; under the bye-laws, these fines can go up to thousands of rupees for some offences. However, sources say the repeated attempts to expedite the matter over the past year have not worked; Delhi Government’s Urban Development Secretary and Director of Local Bodies, Rajendra Kumar, declined to comment on the status of these bye-laws.