State Mayors8217; Council seeks more powers

Speaking on the occasion, Mumbai Mayor Harishwar Patil demanded that mayors be given executive powers on par with their counterparts in western countries, where the mayors even controlled the local police and railways.

He pointed out that the existing one year term was too short to work for the development of a city. He said that theMayor of Mumbai had been given some financial powers of upto Rs 20 lakh expenditure, but it was meagre. He also advocated that the Municipal Commissioner should be answerable and controllable by the concerned mayor, who should have the powers to write the annual confidential reports of the commissioners.

Bhopal Mayor Umashankar Gupta demanded an inquiry into the causes of abolishing the Mayor-in-Council system in Mumbai. He said that the system was doing well in Calcutta and three corporations in Madhya Pradesh and it was surprising that it could not work in Mumbai.

The Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Narayan Rane launched a scathing attack on the tendency of elected representatives in asking for more powers. He said that whatever powers they had were enough and were in no way short in working for public welfare.

He cited examples of Pherozeshah Mehta and S K Patil who did outstanding work in Mumbai.

He alleged that most of the elected representatives wanted powers tobenefit themselves and not for the welfare of the people. He said that in civic bodies, politicians were more interested in issuing tenders than inspecting civic services in their own constituencies on a day-to-day basis. He, however, said that if the present government decided to accede to the demands of the mayors, he would not oppose it in the Legislature.

Rane pointed out that the Mayor-in-Council in Mumbai was abolished because it had lost transparency and that those at the helm of affairs had no knowledge of the economics of a civic body and ended up drawing unrealistic financial outlays. He pointed out that tenders were kept pending for no reason for three months at a stretch and urgent works like the pre-monsoon clearance of garbage and drainage was delayed till mid-May. He said that the end result was mismanagement of civic affairs and a deficit of Rs 630 crore.

Minister of State for Urban Development Sunil Tatkare said the government had formed a panel to discuss the issues and soon a meetingwould be called to take a decision in the matter. Housing Minister Rohidas Patil said the Government was committed to decentralisation of powers for the welfare of the people.

The mayors8217; meeting was attended by Dr Shobha Bachhav Nashik Mayor, Harishwar Patil Mumbai Mayor, Tukaram Naik New Mumbai Mayor. Vilas Ingle Amravati Mayor, Dattatraya Gaikwad Pune Mayor, Madhukar Pavle Pimpri-Chinchwad Mayor, Shahu Sawant Kalyan Dombivali Mayor, Sudam Sonawane Aurangabad Mayor, Haridas Sama Ulhasnagar Mayor, Suresh Patil Sangli Mayor, and the mayors of Nanded, Solapur and the president of the Parbhani municipal council.