Mumbaiites, call to BMC’s toll-free numbers for Ganpati noise pollution complaints is not free

If you want to complain using your mobile phone, you have to dial 0222269, another helpline number which the BMC did not publicise or confirm, and for which you will be charged.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently launched two toll-free numbers -- 1292 and 1293 -- to file complains about noise pollution and unauthorised pandals during Ganpati. But here’s the catch -- you can’t get through to these numbers using mobile phones or non-MTNL landline phone.

The BMC recently published an advertisement to make Mumbaiites aware of the helplines. (File)

So if you want to complain using your mobile phone, you have to dial 0222269, another helpline number which the BMC did not publicise or confirm, and for which you will be charged.

The BMC recently published an advertisement to make Mumbaiites aware of the helplines. The aim, according to BMC officials, was to reduce the burden on 100, the emergency police helpline number.

When Hindustan Times contacted Anand Wagralkar, deputy municipal commissioner of zone 2, who has signed the advertisement published in the paper, to check if there was a way to call on these numbers from mobile phone, he said, “I will have to check with the disaster management (DM) department. Why don’t you try adding 022 before the four digits.”

Meanwhile, Mahesh Narvekar, chief of the department, said, “Those numbers do not work from a mobile phone. Please ask Anand Wagralkar, who gave the advertisement. It is not from my department.”

When HT called on 0222269, it was connected to the landline of the disaster management room. The officials who attended the call did not know the purpose of the phone number, and redirected it to 1916 (BMC’s disaster response helpline).