Air purifier towers would be waste of money, says Thackeray
Thackeray also wrote a letter to civic chief I S Chahal suggesting that the budget should be limited to covering establishment cost and funding for the ongoing projects. No new projects should be announced in the absence of an elected body, he insisted in the letter
htmumbai@hindustantimes.com
Strap: Also writes to civic chief asking him not to announce new projects in civic budget as elected body is not in place
Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday criticised chief minister Eknath Shinde’s directive to Mumbai civic chief IS Chahal to make provision in the civic budget for air purifier towers in the city to tackle air pollution. He called it as nothing but a waste of money.
Thackeray also wrote a letter to Chahal suggesting that the budget should be limited to covering establishment cost and funding for the ongoing projects. No new projects should be announced in the absence of an elected body, he insisted in the letter.
On Thursday, Shinde wrote to Chahal with a wish list for the civic budget asking the latter to install air purification towers like the ones in Delhi, Gurgaon and Lucknow.
“As a former environment minister who worked on pollution mitigation, I can vouch that these towers are an absolute waste of public money, at large. What govt must focus on, rather than air purifier towers, is to actually identify sources of pollution and to organise them better, stagger their work and ensure they follow pollution control rules. This Govt is supported by these vested interests, therefore no guts to stop them (sic),” Thackeray said in a social media post.
“These air purifier towers are simply an eyewash and a superficial response to a problem that cannot be solved superficially. The BMC has already a climate action plan made in our tenure, shelved now, which identifies these problem spots and has solutions for it,” he added.
On the eve of the civic budget presentation, Thackeray also wrote a letter to Chahal asking him not to announce new projects in the absence of elected body and said it would be against democratic values.
“My simple suggestion as a Mumbaikar to the BMC would be that the administrator must go ahead with the establishment budget and funding the ongoing projects but no new project can/must be taken up in absence of elected representative—corporators, mayors and heads of the committees,” he said.
“In the past five months, voices from all political parties have brought up multiple issues with financial indiscipline, administrative high-handedness of the BMC as there are no checks on the current opaque methods of operations in the BMC. The BMC’s budget spending on new projects would be morally wrong and an insult to the democratic values. it is again democratic values,” Thackeray wrote in the letter.
Thackeray also remarked it is shocking that in Mumbai an administrator can carry on for a year without elected representatives “only because those in power fear to hold municipal elections and let Mumbai suffer”. There was no reaction from the Mumbai civic body or its officials.
“BMC Commissioner I S Chahal was appointed as Administrator in March 2022 by then Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister. Thackeray government while appointing Chahal as as administrator had given all authority-rights of general body, standing committee of the BMC (to him). So now if Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders are raising voice against the budget and rights of the administrator, it is very contradictory and, in a way, they are raising question on Uddhav Thackeray’s decision,” said BJP Mumbai president Ashish Shelar while speaking with the media.