With garbage and filth increasing on city beaches, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to take away beach cleanliness works from the solid waste management (SWM) department and allocate it to the civic ward offices.
According to the civic officials, the city beaches in the city, which are some of the major tourist attractions, are becoming filthier each day, and the SWD department has failed to ensure cleanliness at beaches.
Prakash Patil, deputy municipal commissioner (SWM), said, “The beach cleaning works will now be allotted to the respective ward officials. They will be given the right to take action against negligent contractors and fine them. They have also been asked to get the work done by using additional manpower at the contractor’s cost.”
There are nine chowpatties in the city — Girgaum, Juhu, Dadar, Gorai, Marve, Versova, Madh, Aksa and Manori. According to the people, the garbage that washes up on the beach contains plastic and industrial waste. Locals also say that the amount of garbage has increased significantly since the last few months and is likely to increase more during Ganeshotsav and Navratri.
Last week, the BMC had organised beach cleanliness drives at some of the city beaches with the help of non-government organisations.
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‘No plans of scrapping scheme’
Age correspondent
Mumbai, Aug. 23
The political and the administrative wing of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are in dilemma over the clean-up marshal scheme. Just a day after the political leaders in the BMC announced that the clean-up marshal scheme would be scrapped, the civic administration has clarified that there was no such plan.
In the meeting of the ward committee officials on Thursday, the decision to scrap the clean-up marshal scheme was taken in the wake of the increasing number of complaints regarding corruption and malpractices in the scheme.
However, the civic administration on Friday flatly denied any such move and vowed to continue with the scheme. “The clean-up marshal scheme will not be scrapped. No decision has been taken on this yet,” said Prakash Patil, deputy municipal commissioner (solid waste management).
He further said that the rights to take action against the clean-up marshals have already been given to the civic ward officials. The people could register their
complaints with the respective ward officers, he added.