Mumbaikars pay Rs 1 crore for littering

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's ambitious Clean-Up Mumbai campaign has achieved success in just seven months. The civic marshals have nabbed 36,331 people for offences like spitting, littering and dirtying the city and collected Rs 1,45,46,500 — about Rs 20 lakh per month — as fine.

"I'm happy with the results of the Clean-Up campaign. The drive was launched to make the city cleaner and people aware about the merits of cleanliness and hygiene, rather than collect fines. The amount of fine collected indicates that the marshals are doing their job well," said Additional Municipal Commissioner R.A. Rajeev.

Marshals from Trig Guard Force alone collected Rs 12.29 lakh — the highest amount of fines — from 1,690 offenders in Andheri (East) ward.

A large part of the fine amount was collected from Borivli north, south and central wards, Andheri east and west wards and Colaba. In contrast, only 243 people were fined in Chembur (West) ward, but then marshals were appointed there just two months ago.

"Most people were fined for littering - from throwing food packets to dumping debris and medical waste," said Parinder Kumar, project director of Central Investigation Securities and Services.

As per the agreement, the security agencies and BMC will divide the fine collected equally. The fine collection report shows that at the outset of the campaign — in November and December — less than 100 offenders were fined per month. This was because marshals were only given authority to issue warning cards to offenders. But when they got the authority to impose fines, about 300 people were fined each month.

Last November, the BMC launched the Clean-Up Mumbai campaign and appointed marshals from private security forces such as Trig Guard Force, Central Investigation Securities and Services, Property Guards and Vishal Protection Force to keep vigilance and penalise people found littering, spitting and dirtying the city.