Mumbai: After mid-day’s audit, SOP unveiled for deep clean drive

Garbage is strewn on a street in Dharavi on Thursday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Soon after mid-day audited the ambitious deep cleaning drive of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic body published a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the implementation of the initiative. According to the SOP, the zonal deputy municipal commissioner and ward officer will visit areas where the initiative is been carried out between 7 and 11 am daily. The civic body has also decided to implement an odd-even parking scheme at these locations.

The deep cleaning drive was kicked off in the first week of December. On Friday, mid-day released its audit of the endeavour after visiting six locations. Unfortunately, it came to light that they were far from spotless, as illegal hoarding and ugly cables were found at many spots. Roads were also encroached upon by hawkers and in some areas, community bins were overflowing despite the BMC collecting waste around the clock.

New procedure

According to the SOP, all ward offices will now decide where the deep cleaning drive is to be carried out. The ward officer of each administrative ward will appoint a nodal officer, who will be in charge of reporting about compliance and scheduling activities within their respective wards.

A document on the SOP put out by the civic body read, "The drive will start at 6.30 am and roads shall be swept and brushed. The resultant dust and silt along with water tables shall collected. Roads and footpaths shall be made free from hawkers and homeless persons. Action shall be initiated against illegal parking on roads and footpaths. An odd-even date parking shall be enforced on the roads for regular parking. Odd articles and materials shall be removed from all areas, including road medians. A separate vehicle shall be assigned for the collection of odd articles. The articles so collected shall be kept in one place and disposed of accordingly."

It also stated that medians shall be repaired and kept in good condition and beautification carried out, wherever possible while all illegal posters and unused cables should be removed.

6.30 am
Time when drive begins daily