Laptops for corporators. Again

A day before Diwali, the city’s corporators are all set to be equipped with swanky new laptops. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee on Monday cleared a proposal to give corporators new laptops with hi-tech software to help them carry out civic works better and also train them in the use of laptops.

A day before Diwali, the city’s corporators are all set to be equipped with swanky new laptops. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee on Monday cleared a proposal to give corporators new laptops with hi-tech software to help them carry out civic works better and also train them in the use of laptops.

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The proposal would cost the civic body Rs4.50 crore. In a bid to assist corporators, the civic body is also planning to set up kiosks, which will upgrade information about civic projects and policies in the corporators’ laptops, and will also conduct a two-week training session for them.

The decision comes after newly-elected corporators started demanding iPads from the BMC, claiming that it would facilitate their work. However, their demand was rejected and the BMC stuck to procuring laptops.

Even before the proposal for laptops could be cleared, corporators began making more demands — Android-based phones and a special wi-fi zone.

While the civic body hasn’t decided on a particular brand of laptops to be bought, it has asked a private vendor, ABN Knowledgeware Ltd, to supply the best-possible laptops at Rs37,800 per laptop.

While welcoming the proposal, corporators said that they need more such ‘facilities’ to ensure greater efficiency. “Now that the laptops have come, the BMC must also make provisions to give us Android-based mobile phones. It has been one of our long-pending demands,” said Bhartiya Janta Party leader Dilip Patel.

Patel’s colleague and Mulund corporator Manoj Kotak said that the BMC must create a wireless networking or wi-fi zone, too. “We don’t want a laptop only to listen to music and watch movies. If the BMC wants some actual work to be done using laptops, it is imperative that they create a wi-fi zone in the BMC headquarters.”

The civic body remained non-committal on these demands. “Although setting up a wi-fi zone is a good idea, we will have to check its feasibility,” said additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota.

The BMC will also post information technology personnel in the civic body for a year, to help corporators.