Clean-up marshals collect `6 cr in fines
Eight months after deploying 690 cleanup marshals across the city, the civic body has till date managed to collect Rs 6.27 crore from 2.34 lakh cases of violations across the city. According to a senior civic official, the most common offence for which the offenders were penalised for is littering with 9,000 cases every month on an average
However, they made a comeback and have managed to collect a fair amount from offenders. Surprisingly, the highest amount of Rs 74.41 lakh was collected from R Central ward that covers Borivali while Rs 8.94 lakh, the least amount, was collected from H East ward which covers Bandra and Santacruz.
One of the plushest wards of the city that houses the Mantralaya and BMC Headquarters with most tourism centric spots, A ward, collected Rs 51.95 lakh as penalties for defacing the city.
Syed Ansari, Chief engineers, Solid Waste Management, said, “There are no complaints from the public or tourists against cleanup marshals and we are proud of the marshals to have collected a good amount in all the wards. Also, the marshals have played a vital role in ensuring that tourist spots like Gateway of India, Marine Drive and Taj Hotel are kept clean.”
The B ward that covers areas like Mohommad Ali Road and Bhendi Bazaar which has a huge floating population has no cleanup marshal. Speaking about the lack of staff, Assistant Municipal Commissioner of B ward Uday Shirorkar said that the marshals are scared of taking up the job as they have a perception that the area is filled with underworld criminals. He said, “We had demanded 30 marshals, however, no one turned up for the job. Due to this, BMC's Storm Water Drain department and I have personally taken up this job of penalizing and warning the offenders.” The cleanup marshal scheme was first introduced in 2007 but was discontinued by the civic body in 2011 after tourists complained that the marshals were extorting money.The cleanup marshalscheme was first introduced in 2007 but was discontinued by the civic body in 2011 after tourists complained that marshals were extorting money.