look news india
The Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has inspected 94,903 establishments, including shops, offices, firms, in 24 wards of the city between November 2023 and July 2024 and imposed a fine of Rs 1.35 crore on them for not putting up signboards in Marathi language.
The Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act provides for signboards in Marathi. The 2017 law was amended in January 2022 and made it mandatory for establishments with less than 10 employees to have name boards in Marathi. Signboards were made mandatory to have Marathi font of the same size as fonts in other languages.
An official from the BMC's licensing department said, “There are around five lakh establishments, including shops, in the city. By the end of July, 94,903 shops were inspected by the board and 3388 establishments were found violating the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act.”
Shops found violating the law were fined Rs 2,000 per day. So far, Rs 1.35 crore has been collected as fine. In Malabar Hill, Grant Road (D Ward), Vikhroli, Bhandup (S Ward), Worli, Prabhadevi (G South Ward), Bandra, Khar (M West Ward), Dadar, Sion (G North Ward), and Byculla (E Ward) ) Many establishments did not have Marathi signboards or the size of the board was smaller than other boards.
In September 2023, a bench of the Supreme Court had asked the petitioners, 'What harm can you suffer by putting up signboards in Marathi?' Instead of spending so much money in court proceedings, signboards should be purchased and installed.' The Supreme Court said clearly in response to a petition filed by Mumbai-based organization The Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association against the mandatory installation of Marathi signboards.
On 25 September 2023, the Supreme Court had given two months' time to install Marathi signboards. After that deadline expired on 25 November, the BMC inspected the establishments and imposed fines. From the first day of May 2024, the rule was implemented that shops and firms that do not install signboards in Marathi or Devanagari will have to pay double the property tax.