The municipal administration is hassled by the habit and civic sense of slum dwellers, which makes it almost impossible for them to keep the drains free-flowing even after cleaning them.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that it plans to ask clean-up marshals to keep a check on slum dwellers dumping garbage and filth in drains.
The municipal administration is hassled by the habit and civic sense of slum dwellers, which makes it almost impossible for them to keep the drains free-flowing even after cleaning them. Clean-up marshals, who will be hitting the roads from June 1 will be given this duty in addition to their expected job of keeping an eye on public littering.
"Slum dwellers residing along drains and around the areas have a habit of dumping all the waste from homes directly into the nullahs. This hampers BMC's cleaning action. Each time the drains are cleaned, within four to five days, they are filled again. Floating material comes in the same quantity as how much is removed," said Sanjay Deshmukh, additional municipal commissioner, adding that there was no scope of registering an FIR since the complaint would be registered against unknown people.
After receiving a lot of criticism over the quality of work, civic stormwater drains department has ensured that this time officials have photographic evidence of the situation of the drains before the cleaning work is taken up, during the work and after it's done. Later, the officials also have to take pictures of the drains four-five days after the work. "Considering the length of the major and minor drains, it is difficult to appoint security. However, clean-up marshals can be a good option," said Deshmukh.
"We have photographic evidence of several drains, major and minor, where our officials have seen that even when people understand that the nullah is being cleaned with a lot of effort from manpower and machinery, they don't hesitate to dump filth in it. If the drains flood, the first to get affected will be them. We fail to understand why don't they realise the gravity of the situation," said Deshmukh, citing a few of the major and minor drains where such examples were captured, including Shramjeevi nullah in Kurla on the Eastern Express Highway, Malwani and Kurar nullah in Malad, Rafi Nagar nullah in Govandi on 90 Feet Road, Poisar river near Parekh Nagar, Mogra nullah in Andheri, Behrampada nullah in Bandra East, Rasraj nullah in Vile Parle West, Downstream of Star Bazar Culvert near Metro Yard, Airport nullah, and Gulmohar Road nullah.
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