BHOPAL: Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s council rejected the state government’s proposal to set up two municipal corporations in state capital on Tuesday. The special meet of the council was called on the day to hear out the corproators’ views on the proposed BMC’s delimitation. Alleging that the resolution rejecting the delimitation was unilateral, the Congress corporators handed over memorandum to ministers and administrative officials opposing it.
Earlier, Congress corproators during the meeting created ruckus and did not allow Mayor Alok Sharma to address the council. Congress corporators took to sloganeering whenever anyone stood to speak about the proposed delimitation of the municipal body. All the corproators including from the ruling as well as opposition kept on cornering the chairperson Surjeet Chouhan and interrupting the proceedings. BJP corporators even also raised slogans against Chief Minister Kamal Nath.
After the resolution rejecting the proposed delimitation of the BMC was taken up by the council, the BJP corporators passed it by voice vote. The chairperson, on basis of majorpty voice vote, declared the resolution passed saying that council opposes the formation of two municipal corporations in Bhopal.
However, Congress corporators opposed the resolution saying that the decision was taken unilaterally and their views were not heard. They terming it as sheer violation of the rules, said that the matter would be taken up at higher level. Later, the Congress corproators handed over memorandum to the ministers PC Sharma and Jaivardhan Singh, Bhopal divisional commissioner Kalpana Shrivastava and BMC commissioner Vijay Dutta. The opposition corporators alleged that chairperson did not hear them out and the decision of rejecting the proposed BMC delimitation was one-sided. The special meet was called to hear the views of the corporators from both sides, however, only the BJP corporators were heard, they alleged.
The formation of two municipal corporations in Bhopal was proposed by the state government. The government maintained that BMC was not able to monitor the entire state capital from one headquarters and therefore there is need of two municipal bodies for such a populated city. Opposing the move BJP hit out at Congress government saying that the party was playing divide and rule politics to win the urban body elections. BJP also accused the Congress of communalizing the entire issue. The district administration had invited claims and objections in the form of suggestions from the residents. Over 70 % respondents opposed the formation of two civic bodies and had submitted suggestions that one civic body should be allowed to run in Bhopal with extra powers delegated at the zonal levels in the city.
At the time when the BMC’s council meet was underway, over 60 contractors of various firms protest raising slogans outside the office. The contractors were demanding the authorities to release their pending payments before Diwali. One of the protestors said they were facing financial problems as payment of several projects were pending with the municipal body. We will not be able to celebrate Diwali with our family as we have no money this year, they added.
Urban development minister Jaivardhan Singh, said that the decision of formation of two municipal bodies is in the interest of Bhopal and the residents. The minister urged everyone to keep off from doing politics over the issue saying that BJP has no reason to question the move. We are committed to the development of the state capital, he added.
