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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, March 3: Opposition parties and labour unions in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have severely criticised the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance and the civic administration for the steep hike in taxes proposed in the civic budget for 1998-99.
Even as the government is yet to reconcile to the ground lost to the Congress in the LS polls, opposition parties in the civic body have seized the opportunity to blame the Sena-BJP for the massive deficit.
Municipal Mazdoor Union president Sharad Rao threatened commissioner Girish Gokhale with dire consequences if payment of the agreed interim relief and other emoluments were deferred to cut establishment costs. "The BMC has signed an agreement with the MMU and other unions.
The commissioner is legally bound to fulfil its terms and conditions. Gokhale is learned and should remember that BMC employees are governed under the Industrial Disputes Act," Rao said, adding that if payment of the agreed monetary reliefs was not made on time, Gokhale will be pulled upfor breach of contract. "The BMC will have to pay a heavy price for provoking workers," he warned.
Rao also castigated the SS-BJP combine for its silence on Gokhale’s remark that civic employees lacked accountability which has resulted in the losses, especially in the recovery of octroi.
"The world knows that construction activities have come to a near standstill and that other businesses have correspondingly been hit due to general recession. Instead of understanding the basic reasons for falling octroi recovery, how can anybody blame the workers?" Rao asked.
Senior Congress corporator R R Singh maintained that the alliance lacked a sense of governance and control over the administration. "Raising taxes to the maximum permissible limit will not be a final solution to the financial problems.
The Sena-BJP’s reign of financial indiscipline will have to be checked first," Singh added.
He pointed out that civic developmental works had to be curtailed for long periods in February 1997 and inJanuary-February 1998, as the model code of conduct was in force for the civic and Lok Sabha elections respectively. The multi-crore contract for concretisation of roads was also delayed due to pending litigations.
"How can the administration claim to have made huge losses when no money was spent at all," he argued, adding that the Congress would demand that the municipal commissioner table a performance budget to justify his claims for incurring losses.
Congress corporator Ravindra Pawar also lambasted the ruling Sena-BJP alliance for their "utter failure in maintaining financial discipline." Terming the budget estimates as "a slap on the ruling party" by the commissioner, Pawar said Mumbaiites will have to carry a heavy tax burden because of Sena-BJP’s ineffectiveness in the corporation. "Both the ruling alliance and the administration were aware of the impending losses, yet went ahead with purchasing new expensive official vehicles for the mayor and the municipal commissioner.
They also got the Senaparty office and chamber of the Leader of the House renovated for lakhs of rupees," pointed out Pawar.
Sena leader in the house, Nandu Satam said,"We will oppose the steep hike in taxes. The reasons for mounting losses should be analysed. Taxpayers should not be burdened to such an extent." Regarding ex-gratia to municipal staff being put on hold, Satam said the administration should have thought of it at the time of signing the agreement with the unions last year.
