Clean-up marshals of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) deployed in the K west (KW) ward - Andheri west, Juhu, Oshiwara, Vile Parle and Versova - are now getting those unwilling or unable to fork out the fine for not wearing a mask to do community service - beach cleaning and garbage pick-up.
In October last year, the BMC had come up with this idea to discipline those found maskless, defiant and engaging in unsafe, dropletdispersing arguments with the marshals. But as the cases began to drop by the yearend, civic marshals became a lot more lenient towards violators. Now that cases are suddenly on the rise, the marshals have been forced to go back to their stern ways.
Civic officials said the punishments have been devised as per the bylaws of the solid waste management (SWM) department, that give the civic body powers to ask citizens to do community service on roads if they are caught littering. “Many violators we have caught at areas like Juhu and Versova argue with the marshals over paying the fine, so we have gone back to making them do community service,” said an official of the SWM department.
The official said, in the past one week, 22 people had been made to do community service. They were asked to clean the beach for an hour or collect garbage in plastic bags.
While some people realise their mistake in not having worn masks and readily agree to offer community service to avoid shelling out a fine, others are not so contrite, said the official.
“The second category, we threaten with police action and immediately, they agree to cooperate,” the official said. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Parag Masurkar told The Free Press Journal that amid the rise in cases, the BMC had become stricter in implementing rules to ensure the situation was in control, to avoid a repeat of last year.
“Our aim is not to harass Mumbaikars but to set an example. By wearing a mask, an individual will not just protect himself but also others,” Masurkar explained.
The civic body is continuously exhorting people to wear masks and maintain social distancing. In order to check violations, the civic body has increased the number of civic marshals on the road as well.
