The long-pending appointment of clean-up marshals is on hold amid the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) efforts to set up a digital payment system to collect fines. Many citizens had complained of harassment and fraud by clean-up marshals while collecting fines. Amid the extortion allegations, the BMC did not renew the contract for marshals, which ended in 2022.

The BMC initiated the process of reappointing clean-up marshals during the past year. The initial deployment of clean-up marshals happened in 2006 and a reappointment took place in July 2016. Following Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s directive to create a garbage-free city, the BMC initiated various plans, one of them being reinstating the services of clean-up marshals. Accordingly, the BMC selected agencies at the ward level two months ago.