As polls approach, public funds find their way into people’s hearts

Mumbai residents question the use of slum improvement funds for non-slum areas ahead of elections, raising concerns about potential misuse of public money.

MUMBAI: Mandeep Singh Makkar was indignant when he thought the civic administration had classified his Chandivali neighbourhood as a slum. And then the penny dropped. With civic elections around the corner, all bets are off.

As polls approach, public funds find their way into people’s hearts

It explained why tenders have been awarded for tiling and building passageway work in his neighbourhood, L ward, with funding from the Mumbai Slum Improvement Board (MSIB), under MHADA.

On closer scrutiny, Makkar found that as many as 19 tenders had been awarded, citing “ladikaran and construction of passage”. All of them had an identical budgetary allocation of ₹40.93 lakh. Another 10 tenders citing the same kind of work showed identical costs of ₹21.08 lakh.

“How can funds under the slum improvement board be used for our neighbourhood, which is definitely not a slum,” said Makkar, founder, Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association. He added, tongue in cheek, “We would be happy to receive more funds like this as our housing society also has ongoing podium work!”

And why not. Citizen activist Zoru Bhathena said, “There seems to be a pattern because even well-off housing colonies are getting their internal society roads or tiling work done with public funds. Aren’t public funds meant for public projects?”

Bhathena shared another anomaly that’s raising eyebrows. He said the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) had issued tenders worth ₹3.29 crore on November 27 to repair elevators in two separate housing societies in Mumbai.

The biggest election-linked freebie in recent times is the Ladki Bahin Yojana, which transfers ₹1,500 a month to women from economically vulnerable backgrounds. This flagship scheme of the BJP-led Mahayuti government reaped an electoral windfall during the assembly elections last year.

Now, local political leaders are allegedly roping in various state and civic agencies, hoping to do a Ladki Bahin at the civic level in Mumbai, where public funds are being spent liberally on sewing machines and flour mills.

However, cabinet minister Ashish Shelar, who leads the BJP’s election campaign for the upcoming BMC elections, rubbished the mention of freebies. “The funds are being sanctioned as per norms and regulations. Any MLA can recommend works in his constituency and these are being sanctioned as per existing norms. These are public funds being utilised for the public,” he claimed.

Shelar justified the doling out of free sewing machines and flour mills on grounds of women’s empowerment. “There are provisions for gender-sensitive budgeting as also for women empowerment within the budget, which are being invoked to serve the people,” he said.

“The opposition is trying to build a narrative that these are being done with an eye on the election when the truth is that we have been doing such initiatives for some time,” added Shelar.

Another legislator, Shiv Sena’s Prakash Surve, explained: “There are various funds available which MLAs can tap into for various purposes. Improvement work in slums can be taken up under MSIB, development in private societies is allowed with funds from the state urban development department. Similarly, funds for development are also available under the social welfare and minorities welfare ministries. Not all buildings have the money to carry out regular work and need to be supported.”

There’s just one question: why now?