Press - BMC's Operation Clean-up

Afternoon Despatch & Courier, January 08, 1997

At last the BMC has meant business.  The current move of stepping up its cleanliness operations in different wards of Greater Mumbai, in a bid to improve the hygienic and sanitary conditions, has begun receiving a good response.  Public warnings of penal action and fines against errant citizens have begun scaring shop-keepers and hawkers who have promptly installed waste bins while others are being caught unawares and fined either for spitting or urinating on walls etc. in public places.

By Hubert Vaz

At 6.30 a.m. before the shops can open or hawkers lug their hundred-and-one goods for sale in south Mumbai, while the early trickle of commuters from Churchgate and CST dodge the traffic on the roads bearing steady amber signals, while footpath sleepers are rolling up their beds and cars are being washed along the footpath, a small battalion of BMC employees attached to the 'A' Ward Office are out on their drive to discipline the denizens of Mumbai.

They are out on this unprecedented mission of really "training" the people of Mumbai to keep the city clean adn beautiful by apprehending them and fining them for petty and careless indulgences which render the city dirty.  Whether it is a shopkeeper who sweeps his shop and tosses the refuse onto the adjacent footpath,  a person casually spitting onto the road or anybody habitually urinating behind a post box or a compound wall, the specially-appointed civic staff encouter them adn fine them on the spot depending on the nature of the nuisnace posed by them.

A visit to 'A' Ward on one day during the first week of the cleanliness drive revealed the earnestness with which the drive was being executed and the fear that has gripped the hawkers who have been extensively spread across the length and breadth of the ward.  All of the hawkers who have been extensivly spread across the length and breadth of the ward.  All of the hawkers have kept waste bins and buckets besides their stalls and are frequently requesting people who patronise their stalls not to chuck waste paper or garbage around their stalls so that they do not get pulled up or fined by the civic authorities who are on their rounds throughout the day.

The cleanliness operation in Ward 'A' is part of the 'Intensive Operations of Sanitation Services in Wards' project launched by th BMC on January 1 and which  is to continue for a month.  If found to be satisfactorily effective, it will continue for six months.  The drive has been launched jointly by the BMC and the city police while the municipal commissioner and the police commissioner have together issued public warnings saying those found guilty of throwing garbage in public places or indulging in other nuisances like spitting, urinating etc.  in public places would attract penal action and be fined accordingly.  The drive has been launched after studying a similar and successful operation in Surat, to make Mumbai equally clean.

According to the officer of 'A' Ward, Mr. Amarnath Dubey, the entire ward has been divided into eight sections.  Each section is supervised by six or seven officers, four labourers and one security guard who are headed by a supervisor of the grade of  either assistant engineer, junior engineer, lorry inspector, licence inspector etc.  At 6.30 in the morning all the staff working in all eight sections report at the ward office and then go out on their respective rounds carrying equipment like shovels etc.  One removal lorry also keeps doing the rounds of the entire ward to assist in the clearance operations.

The members of the civic team, all of whom bear authorised badges, keep a lookout for those (especially shopkeepers and hawkers) chucking garbage onto footpaths and streets after they have bee nswept by the municipal sweepers.  And no sooner that one indulging in such a deed is spotted than the officers immediately encounter him and impose a fine ranging between Rs. 25 to Rs. 100.  It has to be immediately paid and for this a receipt is given.  Those trying to resist the fine are taken to the nearest police station for necessary action.

Mr. Dubey also disclosed that heavy vehicles like tankers which spill water onto roads as they pass by are stopped and fined between Rs. 200 to Rs. 400 for not providing the required water-tight lids.  Buses operators whose vehicles are parked along M.G. Road and P. D'Mello Road, and whic hare regularly washed along the footpath, are also fined between Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 and warned not to continue dirtying the roads.  The operators have been asked to send their vehicles to service stations for cleaning etc. instead of creating public nuisance and threatened that their vehicles would be liable to be impounded by police.  Mr. Dubey also remarked that the buses are being washed and looked afte by slum-dwellers who set up shanties behind the buses and remain hidden from public view thereby adding to the shabbiness along city roads.

Local municipal councillors, Mr. Sambhajirao Deshmukh and Mrs.  Saroj Kapadia, who are also monitoring the drive along with Mr. Dubey, have observed that the drive has been picking up well and that some level of cleanliness awareness has been created among the citizens.  However, some citizens have felt that they were wrongly fined and said that a delegation of shopkeepers had approached the ward officer protesting against the "unfair" fines imposed on them by civic staff.

Mrs. Kapadia also told the ward officer that it was not correct to fine those who washed their cars along roads in residential areas since there were no parking lots or garages available in some congested areas.  However, Mr. Dubey disagreed.  He suggested that car owners either clean their cars with dry dusters or send them to service stations for washing if they did not have private compounds, since the washing of cars led to accumulation of dirty water and slush along roads.

The BMC teams are working in two shifts in the day during which they enforce cleanliness measures besides distributing pamphlets warning the public to maintain hygience and cleanliness.  Postes urging citizens to keep the city clean as well as warnings about penal action and fines for violaters have also been put up.  However, it is the citizens themselves who will really make the drive successful by joining hands with the civic staff in cleaning and beautifying the city.