Civic body to table proposals worth Rs 65 cr before standing panel

“The election code of conduct will be in place anytime and there were specific directions to get the expenditure for the work approved in advance or it might get delayed. Hence,all the civic departments have rushed forth with proposals of infrastructure development,” said an official.

The term of legislative council membership from local civic bodies of Pune at present represented by city NCP chief Vandana Chavan will end soon and fresh elections would be announced anytime.

Congress corporator Ulhas Bagul justified the civic administration tabling of over 100 proposals at the standing committee meeting. “If the work gets held up or delayed only due to the inability of the standing committee to approve it because of the election code of conduct then the infrastructure development gets a beating,” he said.

The BJP has held the failure of the committee headed by the ruling NCP-Congress alliance for such a situation. “There have been virtually no decisions in the standing committee in last two months. The proposals piled up and have to be cleared hastily later,” said BJP leader Mukta Tilak. She said the code was just an excuse. “The committee should have directed the administration to table the proposals in advance instead of waiting for the meeting before election code of conduct.” The prominent proposals include Rs 12.45-crore infrastructure development for a multi-storey parking near Pune railway station,Rs 1.15 crore for a bridge across two canals on Sinhagad Road,Rs 1.15 crore for road development in Kondhwa.