TOI: BMC doesn’t have manpower to enforce rules: August 29, 2008

A BMC survey has revealed that as many as 80,000 shops are yet to comply with the rules; the city has a total 4.84 lakh shops and establishments. But the BMC’s shops and establishments department has been grappling with inadequate manpower for a while now. BMC guidelines say one licence inspector is required for every 3,000 shops, which means that the agency should have more than 161 inspectors. But the department has got only 80. It has 30 more senior inspectors but even that, officials say, is not enough; the figure ideally should have been 40. 

  Senior officials in the department said they had repeatedly told their seniors of the situation but without effect. They also admitted that it would be difficult to maintain the drive beyond 15 days.

  “What else can we do? We have been managing like this for so many years,’’ a senior civic official from the department told TOI. 

   The MNS strong-arm measures has come as unsought help in such a scenario, say officials. “Shopowners have been ignoring our warnings for years but now hundreds of them are scurrying to put up proper signboards though the coercion is definitely deplorable,’’ an official said.

   The BMC’s own figures show that its drive against non-Marathi signboards have lost steam over the years.

   The department prosecuted 5,433 shopowners in 2000-’01 but the number dipped to only 750 in 2005-’06. The drive was even suspended for a few years in between.

THE LAW ON SIGNBOARDS

1981 |

A provision, to make Marathi mandatory on every shop signpost, is included in the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act-1961; but the name of the shop can also be written in other languages on the same signboard.

2000 |

The clause is amended to decree that the Marathi script on the board should precede other languages and be bigger and bolder than letters written in other languages.

2001 |

The retailers’ association challenges the last amendment in Bombay High Court; the court stays the amendment.

FINE IS FAIR?

* The BMC has the power to prosecute shopowners who do not display their shops’ names in Marathi also; they can be hauled to a magistrate’s court and can be     fined between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000.
*  Mumbai has 4.84 lakh shops and establishments.
*  An estimated 80,000 of these shops may not be using any Marathi at all on the signboard.
*  The BMC has threatened to initiate a crackdown on these shops on Friday.
*  The BMC has 30 senior inspectors and 80 inspectors to do this job.

ACTION SO FAR

The BMC has, off and on, acted against shops without any Marathi on their signboards
2000-’01 | 5,433 prosecutions

2001-’02 | 3,336 prosecutions

2005-’06 | 750 prosecutions

2006-’07 | 2,399 prosecutions

2007-’08 | 4,600 prosecutions

April to June 2008 | 884 prosecutions