Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The fissure between the newly elected council of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and civic body officials came to the fore in the Mayor-in-Council’s meeting on Friday when MiC member Abhishek Bablu Sharma launched a no-holds-barred attack on officials alleging that they don’t listen to the elected public representative by saying that they don’t have the power to do anything and everything rests with the municipal commissioner Pratibha Pal.
In retaliation, Pal said that she was the head of the IMC administration so officials are not wrong when they say that the power to take major administrative decisions rests with me.
The second meeting of MiC started on a stormy note as Sharma alleged that officials do not care about the issues raised by MiC members and corporators.
“The officials say that they don’t have the power to address the issues raised by us. The only thing the officials do is tell us to talk to the municipal commissioner,” he said expressing his anguish at the attitude of the officials.
Standing by her subordinates, Pal stated that mostly the administrative and financial powers lie with her so they are not doing anything wrong by reiterating the same.
With the pitch of the argument rising, the mayor intervened saying that it’s not right on the part of officials to not listen to the issues or problems raised by corporators as they are answerable to the public.
After some discussion, it was agreed that some guidelines would be made so that the corporators and officials can come on the same page.
IMC to make SPV for solving the Hukumchand Mill land issue
The MiC approved a proposal suggesting the formation of an agency which will ensure payment of pending dues of Hukumchand Mills labourers. “We will put a proposal in the High Court stating that the dues of mill workers will be cleared and some infrastructure will be created on the mill land which will be beneficial for the city. We will go ahead if the court permitted to do so,” the mayor told reporters.
Bhargav stated that IMC may ink a special MoU with MPIDC for the development of Hukumchand land.
Other major decisions
-Approval of development works worth Rs 350 crores. The works include many major drainage lines, water lines and road projects.
-1 BHK houses to 1032 EWS beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana; exemption of stamp duty of more than Rs 5 crores in the registry
- For the interior of the under-construction IMC’s council hall, Rs 4.66 crore was approved.
- Rs 14.12 crore approved for the road connecting Annapurna Road to Ring Road (between Sudama Nagar and Vishwakarma Nagar).
- Under PMAY, an additional amount of Rs 25.27 crore was approved for the construction of residential units behind Impetus IT Park.
- Rs7.69 crore for the construction of a cement concrete road from Chandrabhaga to Kalalkui Masjid.
- Rs 6. 21 crore road widening from Gutkeshwar Mahadev at Kila Maidan Road via Junarisala to Sadar Bazaar Main Road under Zone No 01.
- Rs 2.75 crore for crop compensation of agricultural land affected by submergence by increasing the water catchment capacity of Yashwant Sagar. This amount is for the years 2019 to 2022 i.e. for three years.
- Rs 5.39crore for laying of 400 mm diameter pipeline in Tapti complex.
- Decision was taken to divide the city into four parts. 4 task forces, for each part, will be formed to clean the sewerage and drainage system. Each team will have 20 employees, 2 desalting machines and other items.
Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav said MiC meeting is the right platform for MiC members to raise issues and concerns. Sharma raised some issues which were basically about officials not listening to public representatives. Officials responded but the fact remains that we were not satisfied with their replies on some issues. Resultantly, some directions were given to the officials. On the other hand, public representatives must also not get involved in administrative works for which directions were given by me. I have told officials to respond and try to address the problems raised by public representatives. The officials should not shun responsibility saying that the powers lie with higher-ups even when the issue raised is to be addressed at their level.
