Taking moral policing up several notches, a first-time woman corporator elected of a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket has decided to ‘discipline’ sex workers by erecting a flex board in Mandai — the city’s oldest vegetable market. The board erected on a pole in the market warns Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) against soliciting clients at the market, as it tarnishes the image of the area. It also threatens anyone found doing so with ‘MNS-style’ retaliation.

Though the board endorsed by Rupali Patil-Thombre, MNS corporator from Mahatma Phule, Mandai ward, does not mention what action will be taken, social activists have reacted strongly to the message it carries. Also, when an official from the municipal corporation was asked whether the board on display legally, he said that he was not aware of such a board. The police of the area also said that there have been no complaints regarding the sex workers creating a nuisance.