MUMBAI, March 27: Mumbaiites may be heaving a collective sigh of relief after the BMC unions called off their strike. However, politicians being what they are, could not resist helping themselves to some brownie points. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Narayan Rane, got embroiled in a spate of words in the floor of the House over the handling of the whole affair, specifically in the metropolis.Earlier in the day, municipal workers all over the State, except in the metropolis, agreed to call off their strike. Minister of State for Urban Development Sunil Tatkare was to make a statement in the House about it. However, before Tatkare could proceed, Rane accused Deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal of scuttling the negotiations, which could have ended the strike in Mumbai as well.Rane said that he had called a meeting of civic officials and the union leaders at his residence. The latter were willing to withdraw the strike provided a committee was formed to discuss their demands. Municipal Commissioner K Nalinakshan informed the CM about the development.Apparently, the CM advised him to inform Bhujbal as well. When Nalinakshan contacted Bhujbal, the latter reprimanded him former for attending the meeting at Rane's house.Rane accused Bhujbal of scuttling the talks and prolonging the strike in Mumbai only to avoid giving the credit for ending the strike to the Opposition. He accused Bhujbal of deliberately scuttling the talks and of not being interested in ending the impasse which had led to unhygienic conditions in the metropolis.Countering him, Deshmukh blamed the Shiv Sena for the sorry state of affairs in the city. He pointed out that in the recent civic budget passed by the corporation, no budgetary provision had been made for the payment of ex-gratia to the civic employees. He said, Rane had forgotten that corporators of all parties, including the Sena, had passed the civic budget without making provision for ex-gratia, leading to the strike. Deshmukh further said that the Mayor had approached him to end the impasse and informed him that the corporation had already levied additional taxes to the tune of Rs 450 crore. The provision for ex-gratia amount would have meant an additional burden of Rs 130 crore. Deshmukh said that he had cooperated with the Mayor, leaving aside party affiliations and reprimanded the unions for going on strike at a time when US President Bill Clinton was visiting the metropolis. He had told the union leaders that the strike was unwarranted as the payment of ex-gratia was usually made during Diwali.He said that the Shiv Sena, which was in power in the corporation, should not have passed the civic budget without making provision for ex-gratia.Later, Tatkare informed the assembly that according to the settlement reached with the unions (except Mumbai), it had been decided to fill vacant posts; approve creation of new posts (provided such new posts did not increase the financial burden of salaries beyond 42 per cent of its revenue); deciding the issue of regularising temporary workers by May 31; enforcing the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission; and decide the problems of Thane.
