Mumbai: Demanding uniformity in policy, corporators accused the BMC administration of ‘cherry-picking’ over a proposal before the standing committee which suggested covering nullahs with polycarbonate sheets at select places in the city.
At the standing committee meeting on Tuesday, corporators asked why could the BMC not come up with the same policy for all of Mumbai.“Why is the BMC cherry-picking some areas for polycarbonate sheets and not implementing this policy across Mumbai?” questioned Nationalist Congress Party corporator Rakhi Jadhav.
The BMC had planned to use plastic sheets to cover nullahs in select areas like Dahisar and Borivli. This move was to facilitate cleaning and prevent encroachment. However, standing committee corporators criticised this selective approach. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Prabhakar Shinde accused the corporation of working according to the whims and fancies of civic officials.
“How can the BMC have different approaches to the same problem in different parts of the city? Does the corporation even have a policy on tackling the problem of coverage of nullahs across Mumbai? These open nullahs are responsible for the spread of disease in their vicinity,” said Shinde. Corporators also blamed the corporation for not cleaning nullahs across Mumbai throughout the year.
“Why are nullahs not cleaned throughout the year. Various proposals are given to the standing committee for partial cleaning of nullahs before the rainy season,” said Congress coporator and the leader of the opposition Ravi Raja. The proposal was withdrawn by the administration after a heated discussion. “We will come up with a uniform policy and bring back the proposal for approval,” said the additional municipal commissioner, Idzes Kundan, before withdrawing the proposal.
