Corporators termed the clean-up marshals as “official extortionists” at Wednesday’s standing committee meeting demanding the additional municipal commissioner to take action against the same. The clean-up marshals appointed by the BMC inspect dirty locations and prevent people from littering. However, corporators alleged that these clean-up marshals harass people by minting money from them.
Out of 24, the BMC has appointed clean-up marshals for 22 wards and on August 2017, the agreement ended but the same was prolonged for a year. When the proposal came up for discussion, Shiv Sena’s Ashish Chemburkar said that these marshals are only seen near railway stations. He demanded that their work record should be shared with corporators.
Another Sena corporator, Rajul Patel alleged that the civic body has formed a team of extortionists in the name of clean-up marshals. BJP corporator Prabhakar Shinde agreed with Patel and added that a lot of complaints have been registered against marshals. Shinde further said that clean-up marshals should give service for 24 hours and there should be 30 such marshals but in his T ward, only 19 marshals can be seen, who do not keep an eye on the garbage but run after people who throw cigarette butts on the road.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Vijay Singhal said that the BMC collected INR 9 crore in the form of a fine from citizens in the last financial year. Out of which, INR 4.5 crore was kept by the marshals as a part of the fine-sharing arrangement. Saying this, he also promised to look into the complaints.
Disposing of debris on streets – INR 20,000
Spitting/littering – INR 100
Not keeping the building compound clean — INR 10,000
Share
Tweet
