The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) still gets 25 to 30 complaints about the menace of open dumping of debris and waste every day, even in the face of comprehensive regulations and specialised teams to handle the issue. The average number of complaints received each day in the first month following the June introduction of a dedicated helpline was 125.
The civic organisation established a special hotline in June to report concerns about waste, following orders from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Around 3,500 complaints had been received by the company in the first 30 days. The quantity decreased after the rainy season began, but social media posts concerning the garbage piles persisted. A special campaign was launched by the BMC when Shinde brought up the matter once more on September 1.
The civic authority promised the public that deputy municipal commissioners and ward officers would visit every day for two hours. Alongside regular BMC employees, 449 extra workers were appointed as part of the initiative, including 20 contractual workers and 429 workers from NGOs. There were also 181 pieces of equipment that were used, such as 39 JCBs, 66 dumpers, and 76 tiny enclosed vehicles.
However, the complaints still keep coming in. Most of the complaints are from slum areas like L ward which consists of Kurla, P North ward- Malad, K west ward consisting of Andheri West and Jogeshwari West. These wards have consistently ranked highest on the complaint list over the course of time, despite a decline in the total number of complaints.
An official from the waste management department said that they had given the wards instructions to identify five locations with frequent complaints and address the issues accordingly. The number of complaints sharply decreased following their efforts. The civic body received 3,570 complaints in the first 30 days until July 5 (an average of 128 complaints per day), of which 93 had to do with trash and the remainder with debris.
On September 1, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde demanded retaliation on those who neglect Mumbai's cleanliness. CM Shinde, directed Iqbal Chahal, the chief of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 9BMC) to keep the city clean, and emphasized the importance of maintaining cleanliness not only on the city's main thoroughfares but also on all of its lanes.
CMO’s statement read “No laxity will be tolerated in terms of cleanliness across the city. The matter should be taken seriously by the sanitation department of the BMC.”
12,351 complaints about solid waste management issues were received in 2022, primarily about garbage not being collected through the BMC's central complaint registration system, according to an RTI request made by the Praja Foundation. This means that there were 33 cases per day on average last year.
Waste segregation has become mandatory for Mumbai society as of October 2017. Additionally, BMC offers property tax breaks to associations that separate, dispose of, and compost their trash within complexes. The civic body was also successful in lowering the amount of trash it collected; it used to collect about 7,000 metric tonnes of garbage per day, but that amount has now dropped to about 5,000 metric tonnes.
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