The unruly clean-up marshals could continue harassing citizens on the pretext of enforcing the mask rule, as the BMC has backtracked on its plan to make the payment of fines online. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani told mid-day that going digital is not the solution. However, he said that civic officials would be deployed at blind spots to keep an eye on marshals to control the extortion racket.

Kakani said the BMC will register an FIR against the marshals caught extorting the public. A mid-day reporter had worked as BMC marshal for over a week at Santacruz-Kalina Junction on the Western Express Highway (WEH) in December, and exposed the racket. Following this paper’s expose, BMC Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC) Sangita Hasnale of the SWM department said the fine payment would go online in 2022, and people won’t have to pay the marshals.