Bhayandar: As a precautionary measure against the spread of Covid-19, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the MMR region, has geared up to conduct general body meetings through video conferencing.
The first e-meeting is scheduled to be held next week after a gap of nearly six months. To ensure the continuity of day-to-day functioning while maintaining social distancing, the government has directed all civic bodies to carry out official communication through videoconferencing, email and other online platforms, instead of physical meetings.
Around 54 corporators including the mayor, deputy mayor and other senior officials attended a trial session which was held on Friday. “The trial session not only helped us in fine-tuning the mechanism but it also served as a platform for the governance and administration to exchange their views, suggestions and grievances about the pandemic situation,” said municipal secretary Vasudev Shirvalkar.
“The demo-cum-meeting was important as corporators got an opportunity to discuss the steps taken and other protocols needed to tackle emerging situations amid the pandemic,” said deputy mayor Hasmukh Gehlot.
“It’s a good initiative. I have requested the administration to conduct a similar e-meet to clear the backlog of important issues related to the tree authority,” said BJP corporator Dipika Arora.
To maintain physical distancing norms owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the civic administration had planned to complete its annual budget proceedings at one of its community halls in June. However, the plan had to be aborted owing to an alarming rise in the number of positive cases. At present, the MBMC general body has 94 elected representatives. The last meeting was held in February 2020.
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