Department concerned says extortionist marshals will not be rehired; a senior official says they could be rehired at a later date, and will also perform pre-pandemic duties
A mask marshal collects fines from tourists without masks at Bandra Band Stand on February 12. Pic/Shadab Khan
With the contracts of extortionist mask marshals having run out, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Solid Waste Management department on Wednesday said they will not be rehired. But late in the evening, BMC Additional Commissioner and COVID frontman Suresh Kakani said they could be back on the streets. This despite complaints of extortion against them.
In the absence of mask marshals, BMC’s nuisance detectors now have the right to penalise people for not wearing masks, along with spitting and littering. However, the number of nuisance detectors is much less at 40 as opposed to 240 clean-up marshalls across the city.
A clean-up marshal fines an auto passenger for not wearing mask properly, near Chembur. File pic
The BMC had made wearing of masks in public compulsory in April 2020 and appointed an agency for clean-up marshall under the Disaster Management Act to enforce the same. After the initial contract period, the BMC had given it an extension, which has also ended.
“The contract ended two weeks ago. We are already in the process to hire agencies for a new contract, but have now decided to scrap the process,” said a senior official from the Solid Waste Management Department. The official said that there was no need for so many marshals now and added that there were a few complaints against them, too.
A source from the BMC also said that since the daily COVID-19 cases have been decreasing, there have been discussions among senior officials on whether to stop penalising citizens for not wearing masks. “People should still wear masks. But now that there has been a sharp dip in daily COVID-19 cases, the penalty could be discontinued. Soon there will be a decision on that,” a source said.
However, Suresh Kakani, additional BMC commissioner, later in the evening, told mid-day that new marshals will be appointed soon. He added that while the previous ones only had the power to penalise people for not wearing masks, now they will act against people for littering and spitting also.
Rashmi Jadhav, a Borivli resident, said that wearing masks in scorching heat is difficult and added that the BMC should reconsider the decision to fine people.
“Most of the people are wearing masks on their chins and no one cares about it. So why penalise only a few people for not wearing them? It’s better to rethink the action,” said Vinod Almeida from Kanjurmarg.
Clean-up marshals, who were first hired in 2007 to penalise people for spitting, littering, and dumping of debris in public places, were given the power to fine citizens R200 if found not wearing masks in public places after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In the past two years, the clean-up marshals had fined more than 35 lakh citizens and collected over Rs 80 crore as penalty.
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