What’s behind the shuttering of Mumbai’s clean-up marshal program next month?

Who are Mumbai’s clean-up marshals?

Clean-up marshals are tasked with promoting and improving the city’s public hygiene by penalising members of the public for spitting, littering, burning garbage, and illegally dumping waste in public spaces. Penalties specified under BMC’s Solid Waste Management bylaws, 2006, are imposed.

The BMC appoints marshals through a private contractor, who is selected through a tendering process. The contractor provides the civic authorities with manpower and, in return, keeps 50% of the recovered penalty amount, while the remaining goes to the civic authorities. Under the current contract, more than 200 marshals are deployed across 25 municipal wards.

The marshals can be spotted wearing a blue or brown uniform, carrying a whistle and a BMC badge. During the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2020, the marshals were also entrusted with enforcing penalties for people without face masks in public spaces. During this period, the marshals fined more than 35 lakh people and generated around Rs 80 crore in fines.

Why is the program being rolled back?

Civic officials said ward officers received complaints of marshals being involved in scuffles with people, at times leading to the registration of police complaints.

“The number of complaints have increased drastically across all the 25 wards. Marshals have been there since 2007, however, this was the first time that we saw so many complaints being recorded with us every day,” said an official.

In 2011, four years after the program was introduced, the scheme was discontinued after opposition corporators alleged that the marshals were unlawfully fining people. However, in 2016, it was re-introduced. That contract ended in 2022, and the BMC could not appoint any contractor until a new contract began on April 13, 2024, which ends on April 4.

What lies ahead?

Civic officials said that the BMC plans to bring back the post of “Nuisance Detectors”, who are civic employees responsible for the jobs being done by the marshals.

“After the current contract for marshals gets over next week, we are not going to renew it. At present, there are 105 scheduled posts in Mumbai for nuisance detectors, out of which, only 21 are occupied, and we are planning to fill these vacancies and make the post operational,” Kiran Dighavkar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner for Solid Waste Management, told The Indian Express.

“These posts are directly under the BMC administration and the detectors will have a sense of accountability since they will be held responsible if there’s any complaint. Unlike the contractors, who don’t hold any accountability and get an easy way out since they are third-party troops appointed through a contractor and not under BMC’s payroll,” Dighavkar said.