Mumbai civic body’s standing panel clears ₹400 crore more for Covid relief

After spending over ₹1,200 crore on works related to the coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) standing committee on Wednesday cleared a proposal

After spending over ₹1,200 crore on works related to the coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) standing committee on Wednesday cleared a proposal to allot an additional fund of ₹400 crore for Covid-19-related relief till March 2021, amid push back from all opposition parties in the BMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The proposal was tabled by the civic administration, alongside post facto approval for ₹450 crore already spent on Covid-19 in the past nine months since March. The BMC has spent an additional ₹800 crore from its contingency fund so far.

Healthcare workers conduct screening and swab test at Malad. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The BJP moved an amendment to refer back the proposal to the administration and not approve it, which was seconded by leader of the opposition Ravi Raja. All opposition parties, including Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party, supported the push back.

Last month, the standing committee had referred back the 125 proposals related to Covid-19 expenditure worth ₹450 crore that were tabled for post facto approval, and had demanded a white paper on details of how the money was spent. On Wednesday, the civic administration re-tabled a single proposal seeking post facto approval for ₹450 crore, and sought an approval for the additional ₹400 crore.

While 12 corporators from all Opposition parties and BJP, who are members of the standing committee, voted to refer back the proposal, 11 corporators from the Shiv Sena voted to pass the proposal.

Following this, chairman of the committee, Yashwant Jadhav, who is a corporator from the Shiv Sena, voted to pass the proposal.

Raja said, “We had referred back the earlier proposals seeking details of how the money was spent. We did not receive any details, and the same expenditure was approved, alongside granting another ₹400 crore. I seconded the BJP’s amendment because I had earlier proposed referring back the 125 proposals. This is also setting a wrong precedent, where the chairman votes to get a proposal passed.”

Rais Shaikh, leader of the SP in the BMC, said, “The standing committee suspects corruption in Covid-related expenditure of ₹450 crore that came to us for post-facto approval. We had therefore demanded details of how the money was spent. Those details have still not been provided by the administration, so we were demanding referring back of this proposal too.”