As many as 1,381 persons have been booked in the last four years for polluting or throwing garbage into Valley rivers, according to officials. 

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) booked 881 persons and collected Rs 1.7 million in fine while the Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC) took action against 500 individuals and collected Rs 1.2 million. 

Offenders included lawmakers, businesspersons hotel owners and even hospitals, according to Umesh Bohara, coordinator of the Bagmati Mega Clean-up Campaign. “Tilganga Eye Hospital was fined three years ago for mixing chemical waste into the river. We had even fined lawmaker Baburam Pokharel for throwing solid waste into Bagmati River.” Last month, the KMC’s city police had booked Annapurna Sweets Shop at Gaushala, a furniture shop, Arun Glass House and a meat shop at Tilganaga for dumping garbage into the river. 

Bagmati Mega Clean-up Campaign was launched in May 2013 at the initiative of then chief secretary Leela Mani Poudyal, who is currently the ambassador of Nepal to China.

Since the start, the clean-up drive has continued without a break and on Saturday, the campaign entered its 216th week.

Around 550 people from various walks of life participated in the clean-up campaign on Saturday in the Gunsingal area near Tripureshwor and managed around 19 metric tons of solid waste from the Bagmati river. 

Actor Manisha Koirala, who is the goodwill ambassador of the Bagmati clean-up drive, High-Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation Project Manager Jyoti Kumar Shrestha and former government secretaries Krishna Chandra Poudyal and Kishore Thapa also took part in the cleaning campaign.

Campaigners also cleaned other Valley rivers and ring road area on Saturday. 

A total of 41 metric tons of waste was managed, according to the campaigners. 

Rabin Man Shrestha, chief of the Environment Division of the KMC, said the metropolis will not hesitate to take stringent action against those who pollute the rivers and the city. 

According to the Solid Waste Management Act 2011, those found guilty of disposing garbage in prohibited zones face six months in jail or Rs 5,000 to Rs 150,000 in fine or both.