BJP decides to continue PMC general body meet online; Oppn parties cry foul

PUNE: Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to corner the corporators of opposition parties on the issue of holding the Pune Municipal Corporation general body meetings in the presence of elected members

PUNE: Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to corner the corporators of opposition parties on the issue of holding the Pune Municipal Corporation general body meetings in the presence of elected members. The BJP corporators said that as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has not yet given clear instructions on holding the meet offline, the next general body meeting would be held virtual.

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Last week, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress and the Shiv Sena corporators had staged an agitation at the mayor’s office raising slogans against the BJP for not holding the general body meeting in person despite the state government’s order.

Ganesh Bidkar, leader of the house in PMC, said on Monday, “The Maharashtra government’s disaster management department gave the permission to hold the general body meeting offline on February 8, but mentioned to convene it for only one day and the orders were given only for Pune Municipal Corporation. We are seeking the state government’s okay for holding the general body meeting in person. As no permission has been received from the state authorities yet, we have decided to hold the meeting online on February 16.”

According to Bidkar, many developmental projects in the city are pending as the general body meetings have not been convened.

“Almost 300 proposals are pending. If the general body does not meet and reject the hike in property tax before February 20, residents will end up paying the rate as per the proposed tax hike,” the BJP leader said, adding that with no clear instructions coming from the state government, PMC will go ahead and conduct general body meetings online.

The BJP blamed the opposition parties who staged an agitation at the mayor’s office for failing to get the permission from the state government to hold GB offline.

“Hence, the February 8 dharna was just a drama by corporators of the opposition parties,” he said.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Aba Bagul said, “It is our demand that the BJP should convene general body meeting offline. The state government gave instructions to start the meeting in person, but the BJP said that it needs instructions from the urban development department.”

The PMC is yet to hold any general body meeting in the presence of all corporators since the beginning of the pandemic.