The corporators have demanded that the BMC immediately look into the maintenance of gardens and open spaces in the city.
Due to the pandemic, the BMC had slashed its budget for maintaining gardens and open spaces by 50% in the civic budget. Also, after the restrictions were imposed due to the second wave, maintenance works of the gardens has not been carried out. “The city gardens are in a state of neglect due to no maintenance. Now that the second wave is receding, people have started visiting open spaces. However, due to lack of maintenance work, it will cause a lot of inconvenience to residents,” said Ravi Raja, senior Congress corporator and leader of Opposition in the BMC.
At Wednesday’s standing committee meeting, Raja said that as maintenance is not being carried out, the BMC has started taking back the tenders which it had floated.
“The proposed tenders must not be taken back as issuing new tenders will again take time. This will delay work further. The BMC election is due for February next year. The administration must consider taking up some of the works before code of conduct is issued,” Raja said.
Raja's proposal was backed by corporators across party lines and Yashwant Jadhav, standing committee chairperson and senior Shiv Sena corporator, has already directed the BMC to not take back the proposed tenders.
Nayana Kathpalia, a trustee of NAGAR, said that instead of appointing contractors for garden maintenance, the BMC should involve local stakeholders and residents. “Maintaining a garden requires lot of patience. The BMC must involve citizens, instead of contractors," Kathpalia said.
