Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is set to discontinue its Clean-Up Marshal scheme as the one-year contract with the appointed agencies expires on April 5. This move comes after numerous complaints from residents across various wards, who have accused the marshals of overcharging and engaging in extortion. In response, officials are preparing to enhance their nuisance detection team to better identify and penalize offenders, a senior civic official confirmed.
The Clean-Up Marshal scheme, first launched in 2007, has repeatedly encountered disruptions due to public grievances regarding the conduct of the marshals. Despite being temporarily halted on several occasions, the program was reinstated in April last year with the BMC contracting 12 private agencies to deploy marshals across 24 administrative wards—each ward receiving 30 marshals tasked with enforcing public cleanliness regulations.
Under this initiative, marshals are authorized to impose fines between Rs 200 and Rs 1,000 for violations such as spitting, defecating, or littering in public areas. To enhance transparency and efficiency, the BMC introduced a mobile application that enables electronic issuance of penalty receipts and allows citizens to pay fines online via a QR code. Nevertheless, the complaints regarding marshal misconduct and extortion persisted.
“Due to negligence in fulfilling their responsibilities, punitive action was taken against seven of the 12 private agencies involved in the scheme. These agencies were required to pay fines exceeding Rs 60 lakh, a sum that remains unsettled. With the contract’s expiration on April 5, we have opted not to renew it. The proposal has been forwarded to the Municipal Commissioner for approval,” stated a senior official.
Between April 4, 2024, and February 2025, the Clean-Up Marshals imposed fines on approximately 1.45 lakh citizens for spitting in public, generating total fine revenues of Rs 4.54 crore.