Five months since the civic body empowered netizens to lodge complaints pertaining to pollution woes including burning of garbage on WhatsApp, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has slapped over Rs. 1.11 crore in penalties to violators, with over 4,454 cases recorded so far. Data showed that nearly 70 percent of the total complaints were sounded against those who failed to keep their premises clean under the Swachh Angan (clean premises) programme.
Since the launch, the largest share of cases were reported from wards like H/West (Bandra, Khar and Santacruz), K/West (Andheri, Jogeshwari and Vile Parle), M/East (Deonar, Mankhurd), C ward (Pydhonie and Bhuleshwar) amongst others.
At 3163, the highest number of complaints registered have been for violating the Swachh Angan programme with the civic body collecting a sum of Rs. 59.71 lakh in penalties from the violators, between November 2023 and April 18, this year. During the same period, a penalty to the tune of Rs. 44.41 lakh was recovered for dumping of unauthorised construction and demolition (C&D) debris, against which nearly 742 complaints had been raised.
According to senior officials, citizens had raised the least number of complaints on the issue of garbage burning. In the past five months, the BMC has only received 214 cases of open burning.
Launched on June 7 by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Swachh Mumbai WhatsApp Helpline enabled residents to register complaints related to waste management in Mumbai through WhatsApp. Following deteriorating AQI in November, at the behest of the CM, citizens were also enabled to raise grievances pertaining to open garbage burning.
Speaking to The Indian Express, an official from the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department said, “It is difficult to track people who burn garbage since it is often extinguished or burnt out by the time our staff attends to the complaint. Therefore, even though we have received less complaints, we have been taking action by identifying violators ourselves and registering cases against offenders.
Meanwhile, the BMC has also generated over Rs. 6 lakh in fines where C&D waste was found not covered with tarpaulin sheets.
To tighten its grip ensuring the city’s cleanliness, the BMC –- after a hiatus of nearly two years, has also rolled out a team of clean-up marshalls onto the city streets, earlier this month.
