Rs 163 crore BMC special fund follows party line: switch sides, get money

It was only after the 30 corporators had switched that their wards received the funds, Rs 5 crore each. Indeed, in many cases, funds were cleared in less than a fortnight of the former corporator switching sides to the ruling alliance.

None of the remaining 196 corporator wards received any money from the contingency fund, according to official records, including those obtained under the RTI, investigated by The Indian Express.

The contingency fund is a rainy-day corpus meant for use specifically during “adverse situations” such as Covid-19 pandemic, landslides, bridge collapses, etc. The civic body normally sets aside around 4 per cent of its annual net income towards the corpus of the fund.

The typical modus operandi: records show that a former corporator would switch sides to the Shinde Sena, following which the BMC’s ward officer in charge of that corporator’s ward would send a written proposal seeking funds to the office of the civic body, which in turn, would clear the proposal.

On Wednesday, The Indian Express had reported that the BMC, which has not had elections for almost two years, disbursed Rs 500 crore to MLAs in Mumbai to carry out civic works in their constituencies. While all 21 MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Mumbai got funds under this special provision, the 15 Opposition MLAs drew a blank.

It was only after the 30 corporators had switched that their wards received the funds, Rs 5 crore each.

Despite several attempts, BMC Commissioner and Administrator I S Chahal was not available for comment.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray said, “Whenever any member from the Opposition side approaches the municipal commissioner, he is told that former corporators can’t claim any fund. However, if any ex-corporator having affiliation with the ruling alliance approaches the civic authority then their demand gets approved within a fortnight. This clearly shows how the administration is working on the behest of the ruling party.”

Mumbai’s 227 corporator wards constitute 24 municipal wards whose administrative head is a “ward officer,” a BMC official of the rank of assistant municipal commissioner.

Before their terms ended on March 7, 2022, the BMC had 88 corporators from the Shiv Sena (undivided), 80 from the BJP, Congress 31, NCP 9, MNS 7, AIMIM 2, Samajwadi Party 6. With BMC going without elections since then, the civic body has no sitting corporators. It’s the ward officers who have been raising demands for grants to carry out various development works.

Switch sides, take money promptly

A detailed list of the 31 showing the date of crossing over to the Sena (Shinde) and disbursal is on indianexpress.com. Consider these telling examples:

* On August 26, 2023, Congress’s five ex-corporators, Ganga Mane and her husband Kunal Mane, Babbu Khan, Jyotsna Parmar and Bhaskar Shetty, from Dharavi joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Three days later, on August 29, 2023, their ward officer put out four separate proposals of Rs 5 crore each, seeking funds for carrying out civic infrastructure works in the four wards these corporators once represented. On August 29, 2023, the BMC cleared Rs 5 crore each.

* On June 19, 2023, within weeks of two UBT Sena ex-corporators from Chandivali, Kiran Landge and Ashwini Matekar, joining the Shinde Sena, their ward officer sought Rs 5.42 crore and Rs 5.69 crore for the two corporator wards respectively. Two days later, the civic administration approved an allotment of Rs 5 crore each.

* Between June 2022 and March 2023, three former corporators — Samadhan Sarvankar, Santosh Kharat and Datta Narvankar – shifted loyalties from the UBT Sena to the Shinde faction. On June 20, 2023, their ward officer sought Rs 15 crore for carrying out civic works in these three zones. A day later, the fund allotment was cleared.

* Sheetal Mhatre, a former UBT Sena corporator, joined the Shinde camp in July 2022. Months later, on June 19, 2023, the corporator ward she represented in Dahisar got Rs 5 crore. When contacted for a comment on this pattern of selective disbursement, Mhatre denied any bias. “I can’t comment on the pattern of how the funds are being disbursed since it’s being done by the BMC. However, the authorities are giving out funds only to those who are putting in requests. At present, since there are no elected corporators in the BMC, as former corporators, we put in requests based on which they are making the funds available. Also, this whole mechanism is being done under the watch of the Guardian Ministers of Mumbai,” she said.

Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad, however, counters this. “In my area, the councillors who were with me did not get funds. But now that they have shifted to the Shiv Sena (Shinde Group), they have. The decision of allocating funds to an area should be done through proper examination and reports, rather than being selective about where the councillor is from,” she said.

Don’t switch parties, don’t get money

Gaikwad has reason to disagree. For, there are cases where corporators from wards next to each other sought contingency funds but money was disbursed to the one who had switched sides.

Some telling examples:

* On July 28, 2023, UBT Sena’s Mangesh Satamkar, corporator from the Sion municipal ward, joined the Shinde Sena. A month later, his ward officer sought Rs 5 crore which was cleared by the BMC. In contrast, in the adjoining ward, requests by its former corporator from Congress party, Ravi Raja, remain pending till date. This despite the fact that Raja has written a second letter to the BMC Commissioner and a third to the Guardian Minister.

* UBT Sena MP from South Mumbai, Arvind Sawant, wrote to BMC chief on February 2, 2023, seeking Rs 6 crore under the contingency fund for carrying out civic works in a Sewri ward. Its sitting corporator is Sachin Padwal from the Sena UBT. However, the BMC is yet to allot funds to this ward. Sawant also sought funds for two other wards in south Mumbai where the former corporators are with Sena (UBT) and Congress; however, the BMC is yet to allot funds to these wards.