Councillor raps vacancies

SURAT, Jan 19: Bhupendra Solanki, the lone Congress councillor in the Surat Municipal Corporation, rapped the ruling BJP for its inabil...

SURAT, Jan 19: Bhupendra Solanki, the lone Congress councillor in the Surat Municipal Corporation, rapped the ruling BJP for its 8220;inability8221; to fill 19 posts, falling under Section 53 1 of the BPMC Act, which have been lying vacant for years.

Speaking at the general board meeting on Tuesday, Solanki regretted that the seven-member recruitment committee 8212; which consisted of the mayor, deputy mayor, standing committee chairman and four other members 8212; of SMC had not held even a single meeting in the last six months.

When the recruitment committee failed to appoint a deputy commissioner health and hospital, Municipal Commissioner S Jagadeesan got orders issued from the State government to appoint I C Patel for the post. The civic chief exercised the power of the recruitment committee as it was virtually defunct, he claimed.

Solanki said he failed to understand why the BJP had replaced the three members of the standing committee. Though there was an unwritten convention that once a recruitment committee was constituted it lasted for five years, Shankerlal Chevli, Heera Gangani and Geeta Desai were replaced by former standing committee chairman Narendra Gandhi, former mayor Ajit Desai and leader of the house in Surat Municipal Corporation Natu Soma Patel.

It was due to groupism in the ruling party that all developmental works had come to standstill in the city, Solanki alleged.

Commenting on the proposal to set up a Surat Indoor Stadium Management Company Limited8217; to run the Surat Municipal Corporation8217;s stadium, Solanki said that if the stadium had to be run by a private limited company, the entire civic body could also be handed over to a company.

Solanki, supported by Heera Gangani, also opposed the resolution moved by the standing committee chairman Ajay Choksi to float a management company to run the indoor stadium. However, despite their protest, the resolution was passed by a voice vote.