New civic code8217; riles corporators

MUMBAI, JULY 15: Civic officials have suddenly stumbled upon their dormant conscience with corporators naturally baulking at their new-fo...

MUMBAI, JULY 15: Civic officials have suddenly stumbled upon their dormant conscience with corporators naturally baulking at their new-found integrity. During the General Body meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC today, corporators across political parties accused ward officials of citing the recently-announced election code of conduct as an excuse to shirk work and at times to also thwart the corporators themselves from contributing their mite.

Over the last two days, at least two deputy municipal commissioners DMC cancelled routine ward meetings with corporators citing the code of conduct as the reason!

The issue saw an animated and extended debate in the BMC House, after it was raised by Shiv Sena corporator K P Naik. He said his DMC, S S Shinde, had cancelled a meeting on Wednesday claiming it would amount to violating the code of conduct. A similar complaint was fielded by Rajul Patel Sena, also from the same zone, who said she was not even apprised of the meeting8217;scancellation. The meeting, she cribbed, was in fact convened after a four-month haitus. 8220;What do we tell our voters,8221; she wanted to know, adding that such meetings provide a platform for corporators to apprise civic officials of local problems.

Corporators also expressed apprehensions that work would come to a standstill till the conclusion of the General Election, ie, till October. They feared routine work, such as garbage clearance and demolition of unauthorised constructions, would also be ignored.

Shakeela Ansari of the Samajwadi Party said civic officials in the ward she represents refused to accept complaints regarding illegal constructions. She said her complaints, he said, were met with the stock response of the day 8212; the code of conduct.

Parag Chavan of the Sena said civic officers prevented him from visiting a site where two short-circuit incidents took place on Wednesday. 8220;I was not allowed to visit the site while the civic officers were still there as they did not want to be seen withme. They said this would amount to defying the code of conduct,8221; he said.

Congress leader Kisan Jadhav wanted to know what would happen to the July 31 deadline for the recently-announced Clean Mumbai campaign. Also, Gopal Shetty BJP said: 8220;The code of conduct prevents use of vehicles in a manner that could influence the electorate.8221; 8220;But,8221; he reasoned, 8220;such things have failed to impress people long ago.8221; The code of conduct bars committee chairpersons and the deputy mayor from using their official cars. Joining the debate, Mayor Hareshwar Patil said in the past, corporators were allowed to use their vehicles and routine work did not suffer. The corporators then asked the mayor to direct the municipal commissioner to place the do8217;s and dont8217;s regarding the model code of conduct for corporators before the General Body on Monday.

Story continues below this ad

Finally the lone voice of the administration was heard. Additional Municipal Commissioner AMC Ajit Kumar Jain, who attended the meeting, said civic officials are notallowed to skip routine meetings though, he clarified, they cannot attend special meetings convened by corporators. None of the deputy municipal commissioners had been issued any directives to skip the routine meetings, he underscored.