BMC’s nominated corporators: How they are chosen, eligibility, their powers

During the previous term, between 2017 and 2022, in the BMC, out of the five nominated corporators, two were from the BJP, two from undivided Shiv Sena and one from the Congress.

Eligibility & nomination process

The provision of inducting nominated corporators in the House was first made in 1994, when the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act was amended. As the nominated corporators aren’t chosen through elections, each nominee has to fulfill a list of eligibility criteria of the state government.

Some of the eligibility criteria include: he or she must have a minimum five years working as a medical practitioner in a civic hospital, or must have worked for at least five years in a recognised NGO in Mumbai. Any person who has knowledge of municipal laws or labour laws or has served a minimum two-year term as municipal commissioner or a five-year term as an assistant municipal commissioner or a deputy municipal commissioner could also be eligible to get nominated as a corporator in the council.

Government documents state that the purpose behind having nominated corporators in the House is to qualitatively enhance the functioning of municipal corporations by utilising their knowledge.

After the election results are out, the total number of seats (10) are distributed among the political parties on the basis of the seats they have won in the election. Civic authorities said the current ratio on the basis of which seats are reserved states that any political party will have to win a minimum five seats to have their own nominated corporator. Further, for a maximum of 20 elected corporators there will be one nominated corporator in the House from each political party. Therefore, as the BJP has won 89 seats it will get four nominated corporators in the House. Similarly, the Sena UBT, which has won 65 seats, will get three nominated corporators. The Shiv Sena, Congress and AIMIM, which have won 29, 24 and 8 seats each, will get one corporator each in the House.

Powers

The 10 nominated corporators will take part in the day to day proceedings in the civic body, from raising questions in the House to initiating notice of motions and point of orders. The nominated corporators also have the right to attend special meetings chaired by the commissioner and have the right to provide suggestions and objections on the basis of BMC’s budget and expenditure.

However, unlike the elected corporators in the BMC, the nominated representatives do not have the right to vote because of which they aren’t usually inducted into some of the major statutory committees like the standing committee or the improvements committee — the ones that are responsible for framing key policies.

According to the MMC Act all the key resolutions and policies are passed through these committees through a voting process. Also, the selection of chairpersons to these committees is also carried out through voting. “If a political party inducts a nominated member in one of these committees, then they are going to lose out one vote. This is why political parties don’t induct nominated corporators in statutory committees,” an official said.

An elected corporator gets a development fund worth Rs 1.6 crore annually. On the other hand, the nominated corporators get an annual fund of Rs 60 lakh. In addition, both the elected and nominated corporators get a monthly honorarium of Rs 25,000 from the civic body.

“If a nominated corporator wants to carry out some kind of developmental work in any area in Mumbai then he or she has to take an NOC from the sitting elected corporator from that ward. If the sitting corporator doesn’t give NOC then the nominated person will not be allowed to carry out the work,” said Arvind Bhosale, who served as a nominated corporator in the BMC from the undivided Sena between 2017 and 2022. Following the split in the party, Bhosale joined the Sena UBT.

“The nominated corporators are usually experienced persons who have been associated with the corporation for a very long time directly or indirectly. Therefore, the knowledge that they bring usually helps in formulating key policies. Also, the nominated corporators can find out flaws in any proposed policies or regulation and can send them back to the administration for reconsideration,” Bhalchandra Shirsat, who served as a nominated corporator from the BJP between 2017 and 2022 told The Indian Express.