Mumbai: The political tussle within BMC has brought back allegations from the previous regime, with standing committee chairperson Prabhakar Shinde claiming on Wednesday that then chief minister
Uddhav Thackeray had ordered that funds should not be allocated to BJP corporators.
The exchange began during a discussion on BMC’s fixed deposits in various banks and the requirement to submit reports on them to the standing committee every three months. Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Lakshmi Bhatia raised the issue and alleged that discrimination in the allocation of corporators’ funds amounted to misleading the public.
BJP corporator and standing committee member Sheetal Gambhir took a dig at Bhatia, asking her to come and sit with the BJP members. This triggered a heated exchange between BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) corporators in the committee.
During the discussion, Shinde raised the issue of fund allocation under the erstwhile Thackeray govt. He claimed that then chief minister Thackeray had directed officials not to allocate funds to BJP corporators. He said political differences had restricted the development work undertaken by elected representatives of opposition parties.
Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav took a swipe at the Thackeray faction, saying the present situation would not have arisen had the BMC elections been held in 2022 as scheduled when Thackeray was the CM. She said the leadership in power at the time should take political responsibility for the situation that arose after the elected representatives’ term ended without fresh elections being held.
The standing committee also discussed green bonds, the public-private partnership (PPP) model and BMC’s financial planning.
House leader Ganesh Khankar called for a detailed presentation on the expected benefits of green bonds for Mumbai, how potential grants from Union govt would be utilised, and the impact of the civic body’s financial decisions on the BEST undertaking.
