Now, Females to man the all-male cleanup squad
With the Maharashtra assembly passing the Women’s Reservation Bill giving women a 50 per cent quota in local self-government bodies, group leaders recently unanimously cleared a 50 per cent reservation in pay-and-park lots for women running self-help groups. The Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is leaving no stone unturned to woo women.
Corporators across party lines demanded that self-help groups be allotted contracts for clean-up marshalls as they believed that offenders would not get into arguments when women marshalls caught them in the act. This was felt at an informal standing committee meeting earlier this week.
The civic body had initiated the clean-up marshal scheme in May 2007 but discontinued it in December 2010, after receiving complaints about marshals demanding bribes. However, the more controversial jobs that included the right to fine doctors, hospitals and dispensaries for bio-medical wastes will be handled by assistant commissioners and assistant engineers (solid waste management) of the ward concerned.
The standing committee has not yet cleared the revived scheme on clean-up marshals.