BMC delays nullah marshals

Though the civic body had promised to station the marshals by the first week of July, no appointment has been made yet

BMC delays nullah marshals

Though the civic body had promised to station the marshals by the first week of July, no appointment has been made yet
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The BMC seems to be hell-bent on keeping alive its custom of failing the deadlines it sets for itself.

After failing to finish desilting work of the city's nullahs despite several extended deadlines, it appears that the civic body will also be going back on its promise of stationing marshals to patrol the city's major nullahs and prevent people from throwing garbage in them.

As garbage piles up at the city's nullahs, the BMC has, despite its promise, not yet made any preparations to station marshals foru00a0 fining those who litter in and around theseu00a0 water channels

The BMC announced its decision to station these marshals at the beginning of the month, promising that the appointed guards would be stationed at the nullahs by the beginning of July.
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However, MiD DAY's investigations revealed that absolutely nothing has been done yet to make any appointments for the posts of the marshals, even as July is just around the corner. Moreover, instruction boards put up on the banks of the nullahs have either been stolen or damaged.

These marshals will be authorised to fine those who violate rules and throw garbage in the nullahs. The BMC has decided that the fines would range from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000.

BMC has planned to station 25 marshals at the 10 major nullahs in the suburbs of the city in the eastern suburbs this would include the MbPT nullah in Wadala, Laxmi Nagar nullah in Ghatkopar, Nahur nullah, Usha Nagar nullah in Bhandup, Mulund nullah and Mithi river at Kalpana Talkies and Kranti Nagar, in addition to the nullahs in Kurla, Nehru Nagar, Chunabhatti.
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In the western suburbs, marshals would be stationed in places like Goregaon, Andheri and Jogeshwari in the western suburbs.

"The marshals are yet to be appointed. This will take another few weeks. We are still thinking of ways to reduce the use of plastic, to prevent the drains from being clogged, because this often results in flooding", said L Vhatkar, chief engineer, storm water drains (SWD).

He added that the BMC's laborious drive to desilt the major nullahs had been completed, while admitting that desilting of the minor nullahs was yet to achieve completion.

Another official from the storm water drains department said, "Slums have come up along the banks of the nullahs, and the slum-dwellers often remove or deface the signboards. So all our efforts go to waste. If the marshal is deployed in these areas, he could also get beaten up by the locals."

BMC's standing committee chairperson Rahul Shewale said, "We are in the process of deploying marshals. They will be manning nullahs in a few days."

Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar opined, "It is not practicable to deploy clean-up marshals along each and every nullah. We can only appoint them at a few crucial nullahs. The citizens should remember that their actions will eventually cause them inconvenience.

They should resist the urge to dump non-biodegradable waste matter into the drains. The silt removed from the Irla pumping station included a lot of plastic," said Kumar.

Clogged
About a fortnight ago, the Irla pumping station failed owing to the clogging caused by large amounts of silt at the station's outfall, following heavy rainfall.u00a0

Vhatkar said, "Over a truck full of silt was removed by workers. The silt included large amounts of plastic, including tarpaulin sheets. The automatic pumping station, which was commissioned last year, failed and had to be operated manually.

The mechanised project was supposed to help reduce water logging in areas like Juhu, Vile Parle, Khar, Santacruz, but due to the malfunction, these areas were submerged under four feet of water.

The commissioner immediately ordered that the contractor be penalised on a daily basis, till the silt was removed from the station."