A day before term ends, BMC clears over 300 proposals worth ₹2,500 crore

As many as 356 proposals were tabled for clearance on Monday which also included 95 proposals that were held during the last standing committee meeting on March 2.

Mumbai: A day before the five-year tenure of the elected body ends, the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday hurriedly cleared more than 300 proposals related to various civic development works. The proposals worth around ₹2,500 crore were passed with little to no discussions in the span of 35 minutes.

Out of the new proposals that were tabled, proposals worth ₹400 crore were for construction and widening of various drainage and water supply networks of the city (HT PHOTO)

As many as 356 proposals were tabled for clearance on Monday which also included 95 proposals that were held during the last standing committee meeting on March 2. Most of these proposals were related to development works in various municipal wards and expenses related to the BMC public health department.

Out of the new proposals that were tabled, proposals worth ₹400 crore were for construction and widening of various drainage and water supply networks of the city, ₹300 crore were for improvement and desilting works of the Storm Water Drains and proposals worth over ₹100 crore were tabled for road repair works.

The civic standing committee is made of members elected from among corporators and the ruling party in the civic body dominates the committee which has powers to clear expenditure proposals. Standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav, who is a senior Sena corporator, justified the move even as opposition BJP protested against it.

“All the proposals were cleared because of the larger interest of the common public and these projects will have a long-term impact in the following tenure of the municipality. The demonstrations staged by BJP is nothing but a political gimmick. The proposals that have been referred back today will be cleared by the municipal commissioner in his own capacity,” said Jadhav.

BJP claimed that more than 350 proposals worth ₹6,000 crore were cleared during the meeting. Following the meeting, the BJP corporators held an hour-long protest demonstration outside the cabin of the municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal.

“Proposals worth ₹6,000 crore were cleared hideously. Most of these proposals are about awarding contracts to tainted contractors. One of these items included a fresh ₹400 crore proposal for making an underground water tunnel at Powai. A similar tender for this project was passed many years back now they are repeating the same with increased amount,” said Vinod Mishra, BJP corporator and group leader of the party in the BMC.

The agenda was handed to us 24 hours before the meeting, while the rules state that corporators should get it at least three days prior to the meeting, Mishra said, adding that “nobody was allowed to speak.”

Dubbing the move as “unethical” Rais Shaikh of the Samajwadi Party (SP) said, “The ruling Sena is behaving arbitrarily and not a single corporator other than the ruling party knew what was on the agenda. This is unethical as the proposals passed will be funded by the public money.”

The last meeting of the civic standing committee was held at a time when Sena corporator and standing committee chairperson, Yashwant Jadhav’s house was raided by the Income Tax (IT) department owing to alleged tax evasion.