PMC general body meets after lockdown, adjourns as opposition questions Covid expenditure

PUNE: After two months, more than 100 elected members attended the general body meeting of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday, wearing mask and following

PUNE: After two months, more than 100 elected members attended the general body meeting of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday, wearing mask and following Covid-19 preventive measures. Their presence was more to avoid membership disqualification.

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However, the general body was quickly adjourned when the opposition parties, including the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) started questioning the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the administration on how it spent Rs 125 crore while tackling the Covid-19 situation.

Despite the opposition parties’ demand, leader of House Dheeraj Ghate proposed to adjourn the meeting till July amidst resistance from the Congress and the NCP members.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol intervened at the house discussion and said, “Almost all the elected members and officers are working on the field. More than 150 people are in the hall and the central air conditioning is on. Everyone is aware about the Covid-19 precautions. We just called the meeting to avoid the technical and legal problems for elected members. I would like to appeal to all that if anything goes wrong (Covid-19 precautions), all will need to pay the price.”

The mayor agreed that elected members would get proper information and instructed the municipal administration to give written information to members from regional ward offices.

Post lockdown restrictions, the civic administration had postponed general body meetings leaving authorities in a fix as any further delay could have resulted in 98 corporators losing membership. To avoid disqualification of members, PMC called the general body meeting on Wednesday. All the 162 corporators marked their attendance at the register before leaving the PMC building.

As per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act (1949), if an elected member remains absent for three consecutive general body meetings without any information, he or she is liable to be disqualified from membership. To avoid this technical issue, corporators attended the meeting and signed on the attendance register.

The mayor said, “The purpose of calling the meeting was to avoid the disqualification issue. After running the general body meeting for half an hour, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) adjourned it.”