corruption and bribery BMC board exams PHOTO BY RAJU SHINDE solid waste management PHOTO BY RAJU SHELAR PHOTO BY RAJU SHINDE PHOTO BY RAJU SHELAR Mirror test drive reveals how clean-up marshals fleece citizens and refuse to provide receipts; most marshals hang out near stations or tourist spots.They were supposed to help make the city cleaner, but they have just ended up increasing. A test drive conducted by Mumbai Mirror across the city to check the efficiency of BMC’s clean-up marshals revealed that at most places the marshals resorted to extorting money from offenders, often way more than the stipulated fine amount, and did not bother to give receipts.Thehad introduced clean-up marshals in Mumbai in 2007 in a bid to improve cleanliness in the city. After opposition from several sections of society, including both residents and corporators, they were discontinued in 2011. They again made a comeback in July 2016, with 30 marshals to be deployed in each of the 24 wards.“This time, we had the fine printed on each receipt. We also asked contractors to carry out background verification of all marshals. Each marshal should also have cleared Std X,” said a BMC official. The civic body claims to have made Rs 4.5 crores through marshals in 2017. According to BMC, there are currently around 700 marshals on the streets across the wards.When asked about the complaints against the marshals, chief engineer of BMC’sdepartment, Vishwas Shankarwar, told Mirror, “We already have a new tender in place which has much more stringent provisions against the clean-up marshals. They will be fined if we find their areas to be littered.For subsequent complaints, they can be penalised further and even blacklisted. This tender is pending approval from the standing committee. If approved, this will be implemented within the next three months.” He added that anybody who faces problems at the hands of marshals can approach the assistant municipal commissioner of the ward.“We have not got any complaints till now but we will look into complaints made against a particular marshal or a group of marshals, if any citizen approaches us. We will soon be displaying a notice board giving the numbers on which citizens can call and register complaints against marshals,” he added.Vilas Pawar, supervisor for the contractor in A ward, said, “Whenever we have got any complaint, we have acted immediately against the marshal in question. We have terminated at least 7-8 of them on the spot. Sometimes, even the people themselves don’t ask for the receipts as they are in a hurry.”Ashish Chemburkar, a corporator from Lower Parel, questioned why marshals usually stay put in one spot, usually stations or tourist spots, instead of looking at the whole ward.Prabhakar Shinde, a corporator from Mulund, added, “Every day, complaints of corruption keep piling on clean-up marshals. Several people in my ward keep complaining that they are targeting only tourists and BMC is not acting on it.”In February 2018, the Azad Maidan police had arrested Jayesh Sawant a clean-up marshal for trying to extort Rs 25,000 from Abhishek Misal who had threw a cigarette butt at CST.In 2017, a clean-up marshal supervisor Chetan Mhatre in Mulund and marshal Kunal Bhanushali smashed a paver block in the face of one Mahesh Bhagat who had spat on the ground and refused to pay the fine as he did not have money. Bhagat had lost two teeth in the incident.

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