In one of its last meetings before the term of the elected house ends on March 7, the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation passed 85 proposals worth over Rs 1,000 crore out of the 180 proposals totalling over Rs 2,300 crore that were tabled before it on Wednesday.
Among those passed, a majority of the proposals were for civic work at the ward level, post facto emergency expenditure during Covid19, followed by cost variations for several projects like the Hancock Bridge and the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road (GMLR) flyover.
However, more than half or 95 of the total 180 proposals were held back by the Shiv Sena led standing committee, of which several were related to development and civic works like trenching, desilting, road, bridges repair and maintenance.
These proposals are to be taken up at the last standing committee meeting scheduled on Monday, March 7, when the term of the elected House formally ends. This could be the last opportunity for the BMC administration to push these proposals before the civic elections likely in April. The Maharashtra government is likely to appoint an administrator to govern the civic body in the interim until the polls.
Corporators from the BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress vehemently opposed the proposal which sought approval for Rs 19 crore as cost escalation in the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road (GMLR).
SP corporator Rais Shaikh said on Wednesday, “In 2014, 29 accidents had occurred near Mankhurd caused by heavy dumpers using the road. Thereafter, a flyover was proposed but the dumpers and two-wheelers are not allowed to ply on the flyover because of substandard work done by the contractor.
Even now, I’m scared to go on that bridge. The purpose of the bridge has not been served yet. So, what is the benefit of passing a cost-escalation proposal?” BJP corporator Bhalchandra Shirsat said, on the day of the inauguration, CM Uddhav Thackeray himself had criticised the work on the bridge. In his speech, Thackeray had said the surface of the GMLR flyover was not good.
Shirsat also asked why no decision had been taken on the proposal to rename the flyover after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Despite these objections, however, the standing committee passed the proposal, stating that the increased cost was towards payment of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) that had not been taken into account while awarding the contract five years ago.
For Covid-19 proposals, post facto approval for around Rs 1,000 crore was also approved, followed by some proposals regarding human resource appointments, hospital annual maintenance projects and so on. Also, a proposal to reserve Rs 4,000 crore as a ‘special project fund’ to ensure that no mega development projects in the city would face a financial crunch was also passed.
The money will be used on rejuvenation works near Mithi, Poisar and Dahisar rivers as well as on stormwater pumping stations and for Covid infrastructure. The administration clarified that this adjustment has been made from the budget money. Standing Committee Chairman Yashwant Jadhav said, “Several proposals were held back on Wednesday, considering the volume.
Not all members would have got the time to speak on these. Hence, the pending proposals will be cleared on Monday, which will be the last standing committee meeting.
”Meanwhile, the BJP staged a protest at the standing committee meeting on Wednesday, alleging large-scale corruption in the approvals given to the proposals by the standing committee.
