‘Good Morning’ squads rush to stop open defecation in Mumbai

President is to visit city on Sunday to declare urban Maharashtra free of open defecation

With just a few days left for President Ram Nath Kovind to arrive in Mumbai on October 1 to declare urban Maharashtra as Open Defecation Free (ODF), civic authorities in Mumbai are scrambling with their ‘Good Morning’ squads to stop people from defecating in the open.

It’s a tough job for the 180 employees of 36 ‘Good Morning’ squads formed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) who are given the task of patrolling the streets from 5.30am onwards to ensure no one defecates in the open. The rush to stop this problem is to also keep up with the deadline of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean Indian Mission) which completes three years on October 2.

The Maharashtra government had in May this year decided to form ‘Good Morning’ squads to monitor and stop open defecation in all villages and districts across the state. The BMC took it up for Mumbai and the squad has booked 576 people and collected Rs57,600 (Dh3,231) as fine during the past 15 days.

Each team has a clean-up marshal, solid waste management workers and labourers who not only fine those violating the rules but also conduct cleanliness campaigns and find out if local residents have access to toilets.

Though the BMC has already declared the city to be ODF and received an acknowledgement from the Quality Council of India, many residents are not convinced.

However, there are numerous complaints of people using the beaches, including Juhu and Versova beaches, as well as the side of rail tracks as open toilets.