Ranchi: Ranchi railway division is gearing up to strictly enforce existing laws so that stations under its command are clean, an effort it hopes could grab the attention of minister Suresh Prabhu who is known to tweet his appreciation whenever he comes across a stink-free station.

Sources revealed the division’s focus, in addition to maintaining cleanliness, would now be on making all its stations open defecation-free with particular attention on penalising those in the habit of spitting or urinating in public.

“There is a provision of imposing a fine of Rs 500 on anyone found violating cleanliness rules. We have been liberal so far. But now we need to look beyond. We need to stop people from urinating and spitting in public,” senior divisional commercial manager Niraj Kumar pointed out, adding that till now, it was regular cleaning of platforms that kept stations clean.

Indian Railways Act, 1989, said another railway officer, prohibited littering in any occupied or unoccupied railway premises or carriage. It barred people from cooking, bathing, spitting, urinating, feeding animals or birds, repairing or washing vehicles, washing utensils or clothes on railway property.

Now, sources in the division said, they were trying to generate awareness about the various provisions of the act and the punishment that go with it for violations so that the public acted responsibly.

Kumar said spitting on platforms had been curbed to a great extent, and hence the stress would now be on men urinating on railway property, The Telegraph reported.

“Since, there is a provision of imposing a fine of Rs 500 on an offender found urinating on the premises, the plan is to ask the station managers to update railway staff accordingly and keep stations swachh,” he added. The division also was planning to set up more urinals in small and large stations.”We are coming up with urinals in 32 E grade stations like in Namkum and Tatisilwai, which do not have toilets. We will also put up instruction boards along side the urinals reminding people not to urinate in public as it was a punishable offence,” Kumar said.

The urinals, he explained, would be ready by May, till which time officials would not be too rigid with violators. “But, after a month, when people get more familiar with the facilities, we would start fining offenders,” he added.