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After nearly four decades, starting Tuesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of the largest civic corporations in the country, will be run by an administrator. The Maharashtra cabinet on February 9 had taken the decision to amend the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act and appoint an administrator to the BMC. The administrator appointed is the present Municipal Commissioner, IS Chahal.
So, what does it mean to appoint an administrator to BMC?
The Mumbai civic body’s Deliberative wing, consisting of 227 elected representatives or corporators, will cease starting Tuesday. The corporators won’t sit in any meetings or reviews, and won’t discuss or approve civil works, policy or financial proposals, among other things.
The Administrative wing, comprising the commissioner, additional municipal commissioners and various department HODs, will now run the civic body, and approve financial proposals and take policy decisions.
Why was the administrator appointed?
The move comes in the backdrop of delayed civic polls due to a legal tangle over Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation.
As per the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, the period of the corporation (which consists of 227 elected representatives) is 5 years from the date of its first meeting, and the term of office of the councillors is co-terminus with the duration of the corporation. The tenure of the elected corporators of the BMC expired at midnight on March 7.
For how long will the administrator be appointed?
The administrators will be in the BMC till the first meeting of the corporation is held after the elections.
How will the system function?
BMC is likely to appoint a committee consisting of four additional commissioners to assist the administrator/municipal commissioner. Similar to how proposals were tabled in the 27-member Standing Committee meeting, each department head will present the case to the administrator and the concerned deputy municipal commissioner and ward officers will be invitees. The administrator will have the final say in approving a proposal.
Appointing administrators in the past
In the early 1980s, during the tenure of former municipal commissioner D M Sukthankar (1981-84), the municipal elections were postponed. The term of the corporators had ended in March 1984, and thereon, the state had appointed the municipal commissioner as the “administrator”. This was also the first time when additional municipal commissioners were sent to help the commissioner in the functioning of the civic body.
In 1990, the BMC elections were deferred for two years due to the Assembly elections and reservation for women in local bodies, but instead of appointing an administrator, the then government had extended the term of the elected representatives by two years.
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