UMC officials face action

OCTOBER 21: The Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation UMC general body on Wednesday gave its unanimous sanction for the prosecution of all t...

OCTOBER 21: The Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation UMC general body on Wednesday gave its unanimous sanction for the prosecution of all the anti-encroachment department officals held responsible for the Saideep Palace building crash on March 28 this year. Among those who face prosecution are assistant controller U K Ramsinghani, beat inspectors Harsh Hotwani, Sukhdev Bumbani, B G Patil and Suresh Gursahani and clerk Urmila Thorat.

The general body also unanimously asked for termination of the deputations of the government-appointed DMCs D B Vanmali and N A Nagrale. The two will be repatriated to the state revenue department.

The other resolution passed was on water cess. On February 20, 1999, the UMC had raised water rates from Rs 3 per 1,000 litres to Rs 4.50 per 1,000 litres in order to boost revenues. The state government felt this was too little and not only set aside the resolution but asked for the rates to be raised to Rs 6 per 1,000 litres. The general body members felt this was too high. 8220;Thegovernment has powers to quash our resolutions but it cannot infringe on our rights as a corporation and dictate what we should do,8221; said Narendra Rajani BJP.

Later, it was a humbling experience for the ruling Congress-UPP-Independent combine when the RPI supported the Sena-BJP on the issue of civic panels in the UMC. The UMC has a weird situation where the mayor Hardas Makhija Cong is from the ruling party while the deputy mayor Dhananjay Borade Sena is from the opposition. On June 18, when the general body met for electing the civic committee chiefs, the Sena-BJP stung by the way Independents had deserted them to join the Congress had taken strong exception to the way the resolution announcing the panel chief elections was passed since 8220;it was not read out fully before it was passed.8221; BJP leader in the House Lal Punjabi then approached the state government where the saffron alliance was in power, which promptly set aside the resolution. The chairpersons then moved the HC questioning thegovernment8217;s authority in setting aside this resolution. On October 25, the HC said the state should not have intervened but asked that the minutes of the June 18 general body meet be confirmed before it gave its ruling. When the minutes came up for hearing on Wednesday, the opposition raised a furore demanding a vote. The RPI, which everybody expected to stay neutral even if it didn8217;t vote in favour of the Cong-UPP-I combine, sprang a surprise: five of its seven corporators voted with the Sena-BJP. The minutes have been left unconfirmed.

Makhija scoffed at demands for his resignation on moral grounds. According to him, 8220;There were some unhappy persons in the RPI who voted against us on this issue, but it does not mean the RPI has withdrawn support.8221;