BMC cracks down on 6 flower vendors for dumping on road

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has fined six vendors at Meenatai flower market in Dadar with ₹18,000 in the last two days, a week after publishing a notice that warned of action against dumping of waste on the road.

While officials from the solid waste management department collected the fine, the encroachment department took away the flowers from the pavement sellers who cleaned and repurposed the dumped flowers. Additionally, a garbage truck has been stationed outside the market along with a stationary garbage compactor.

A junior officer with the solid waste management department of G North ward said, “This morning, we again carried out awareness activities inside the market.”

On Thursday, there was minimal waste which flower vendors attributed to the low stocks.

“It’s like the stock market,” said one vendor, Suharsh Shekhar. “One day the rate is ₹10 a kg while it’s ₹100 on another day. As soon as stocks increase, as they will tomorrow, we won’t have space to store excess flowers and we will throw them on the road for BMC’s garbage van to pick up.”

This was echoed by the mukadam (a civic worker) on duty at BMC’s garbage spot on Thursday evening. “Fines rarely deter the vendors, and as soon as stocks go up, waste will be back on the road again. The pavement dwellers make this worse.”

“I’ve been around for 15 days. I come here every year around the festival season to sell flowers. But I buy flowers, not collect them from the trash,” said roadside seller Pooja Chavan, who is from Nagpur.

With only two days of ‘pitru paksh’ left and Navratri is scheduled to start on October 15, flowers are once again in demand.

Chetan Kamble, a resident of Swarajya Cooperative Housing Society which is next to the market, said, “According to what I’ve seen the situation has been worse ever since the civic body pasted the notice. But when I complain to BMC, its vehicle picks up the waste.”

Kamble claimed that the flowers dumped make the road slippery, leading to accidents. “The flower vendors have all their trucks parked on the road, which adds to the traffic. There’s also the smell that emanates from the waste.”

Meanwhile, a plant that converts flower waste into fertiliser and agarbatti has also been facing issues.

On Tuesday, a few members of the Swarajya building and BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambakar staged a protest alleging that the fumes from the plant had been causing respiratory diseases like tuberculosis and cancer. Hitesh Jayantilal Purabia, who runs the plant at the back of the market, had to temporarily stop the work. It was back running, with a lower load, on Thursday.

Kamble, who was present at the protest, said, “The flower waste causes an increase in mosquitoes. The plant emits a strong smell but there’s no evidence to say that it causes cancer.”

Purabia said the protest was likely politically motivated, as the plant had been running for years, and there had been no complaints before.