11 August,2026 09:09 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Officials at the meeting expressed confidence that the scheme would mark a turning point for cleanliness in Mumbai`s congested settlements. Representational Pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given in-principle approval to a new, technology-driven cleanliness scheme aimed at transforming sanitation in Mumbai's slums, congested localities, and densely populated settlements, replacing a 13-year-old programme that officials say has struggled to keep pace with the city's needs.
The proposal for the 'Brihanmumbai Cleanliness Service Scheme' was presented and approved in principle at a meeting of group leaders chaired by Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde on Tuesday evening at BMC headquarters.
The meeting was attended by a wide cross-section of civic leadership, including Leader of the House Ganesh Khankar, Leader of Opposition Kishoritai Pednekar, Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, group leaders from Shiv Sena, Congress, Samajwadi Party, MNS, and AIMIM, along with senior BMC officials.
The new scheme will replace the Swachh Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyan (SMPA), which has been in place since 2013 to maintain slum-area cleanliness through community participation.
Under SMPA, organisations were tasked with everything from footpath cleaning and door-to-door garbage collection to toilet maintenance and drain cleaning, a workload officials say became too scattered and unmanageable.
Civic authorities found that piling multiple, wide-ranging responsibilities onto single units within these organisations diluted the quality of work. Compounding the problem, financial assistance to these organisations hadn't been revised even once since 2013, breeding growing discontent.
Technical tasks like cleaning open and closed nullahs, officials noted, also demanded skilled manpower and specialised equipment that the SMPA framework was never built to provide.
The redesigned scheme narrows each organisation's mandate to just two core tasks, daily household waste collection and sweeping of internal lanes, while hiving off nullah and drain cleaning to dedicated ward-level technical teams, and handing public toilet management to Community-Based Organisations (CBOs).
In a major financial boost, monthly assistance per unit will nearly double, jumping from Rs 6,000 to Rs 11,000, a move officials say will strengthen grassroots sanitation work.
The scheme leans heavily on technology to ensure accountability. Real-time monitoring will be enabled through a GPS-based mobile app, while citizens will get a QR-code facility to lodge complaints directly, aimed at boosting public participation in civic oversight.
The plan also builds in a carrot-and-stick mechanism: organisations found negligent three times in a row will be blacklisted, while high-performing ones will be rewarded with an additional Rs 21,000 monthly incentive grant.
Officials at the meeting expressed confidence that the scheme would mark a turning point for cleanliness in Mumbai's congested settlements.
Mayor Tawde directed that feedback from the group leaders' meeting be woven into the draft policy and instructed that suggestions from all corporators be incorporated when the proposal goes before the Standing Committee and the full Municipal Corporation for final approval.
