To raise awareness about its chargeable facility for disposing of debris, the BMC has now decided to publicise the initiative. The civic body has started distributing pamphlets about it and there are plans to reach outto housing societies, with details of the service.
The civic body swung into action mode after noticing that several unidentified trucks dumped debris on the road hence defacing the city. Despite several complaints, such incidents have not decreased. Hence, the BMC took the step to popularise its facility of calling the civic body for getting rubble lifted from the societies.
Sewage Waste Management (SWM) Deputy Commissioner Chanda Jadhav said, “We impose fines on trucks if they are found throwing debris on the street. Usually, these trucks throw debris where CCTVs aren't installed. Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli and Ghatkopar are some of the areas where you can see debris thrown besides the road. We are thinking of installing more CCTVs in such areas.”
Talking about its plan of publicising the facility, she said, “Few years back, we tried to reach societies in Zone 3 which comprise Bandra, Khar, Mahim, Andheri and Vile Parle areas. We used to distribute pamphlets in societies. We had got good response from citizens hence we are restarting the initiative. Our 'Debris on Call' scheme is more reasonable than private contractors.”
As per the BMC's data, around 800-1,200 metric tons of debris is being collected in Mumbai through various construction and repair work. The civic body spends several crores on clearing the debris dumped on the roads.
Still, it faces flak from citizens and corporators alike. Ex-corporator Rajul Patel said, “The SWM Department of the BMC does nothing. There is no control over administration.If you go to the ward office then you will come to know. It's the responsibility of contractors to lift debris but the BMC officers don't keep tabs on them. Even though it's the duty of clean-up marshals to see who is throwing debris on the street, they were behind people to just collect money.”
