State will consider wider powers to mayors — CM

The chief demands of the mayors was put forth by Greatermumbai Municipal Corporation Mayor and Chairman of Maharashtra Mahapour Parishad Hareshwar Patil, Pune Mayor Dattatreya Gaikwad and others in their opening remarks, pertaining to amending the municipal commissioner-oriented Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act since it would not be possible to grant wider powers to the mayors unless the Act is amended. Their demands also included mayors be given powers like the municipal commissioners to spend money on emergency works and creation of a mayor’s funds, among others.

Deshmukh called upon the conference to make proposals to the government on the amendments so that they could be considered and later while responding to queries from journalists, the chief minister admitted that some of the sections of the Act needed to be amended for better functioning of the civic bodies.

Earlier, while addressing the conference Deshmukh said that the proposed legislation of the State Government to curb unauthorised constructions in urban areas would provide legal security to the legitimised slum-dwellers and fix responsibility on those who encourage mushrooming of slums.

The State Government had recently decided to issue photopasses to the legitimised slum-dwellers. Exodus from the rural hinterland into the bigger cities and even into the smaller towns and emergence of slums has put a lot of strain on the civic amenities, making life of the residents difficult. The urban population is expected to cross 50 per cent of the total population in the State, he added.

Later talking to newsmen, Deshmukh said that the photopasses would be given to all slum-dwellers residing in the cities before January 1995 to ensure that they are not evicted. The photo passes would be issued by the respective municipal corporations and the work in Mumbai has already begun.

He said the legal department of the State is framing a law to ensure no more slums crop up after the cut off date and also make provision for action against the ward officer or concerned persons who patronise newer slums. The accountability has to be fixed taking some hard decisions, he said and also called upon all the municipal corporations to take up the provision of photo passes to prevent newer slums.

BORDER ROW: Deshmukh today reiterated that there is no change in the perception of the State Government over the inclusion of Marathi-speaking areas of Belgaum in Maharshtra. Deshmukh said efforts were on to resolve the decades-old boundary issue with Karnataka through dialogue.

To a question on seeking a solution through the courts, the chief minister said as it is the issue that has lingered on for decades, going to court would take more time to resolve. “We favour settlement through dialogue,” he said. “We have already talked to the Karnataka Chief Minister informally and would continue to talk through the high-powered committee which has been set up to solve the issue.”

He said that no time-frame could be given to resolve the issue which has to be done through dialogue and agreed upon by the two states.