MUMBAI: Opposition corporators walked out of the BMC House on Tuesday, alleging that around 15 improvement committee resolutions were cleared without a debate or addressing the deficiencies raised by them.
The proposals cleared included several contentious ones. Among these were a plan to hand over the defunct SevenHills Hospital in Marol to Capri Global Ventures Pvt Ltd under a public-private partnership (PPP) model; to lease the 6.17-acre Century Mills land in Lower Parel to Peddar Realty Ltd for 30 years, again under a PPP model; and the Mulund petrol pump proposal, which seeks to convert a roughly 4,000-square-metre civic land parcel in Mulund East, originally designated for a sports complex, into a petrol pump and CNG station.
“But when the pressure to clear this alleged loot is coming from the top, who can stop it? In protest, opposition members walked out and held a ‘parallel House’ outside the civic corporation meeting hall at the headquarters, where they discussed and rejected the proposals while objecting to what they termed as arbitrary functioning of the civic administration led by BJP and Shiv Sena . Earlier reporting noted: BMC clears 20 proposals in one go amid protests Opposition parties objected to the civic administration’s ‘arbitrary functioning’ Earlier reporting noted: Mumbai: Twenty proposals were approved by the general body in the BMC House without discussion on Monday despite opposition corporators demanding a debate. Earlier reporting noted: Ashraf Azmi, Congress’s group leader in BMC, opposed the proposed lease of the 6.2-acre Century Mills land to Peddar Realty Ltd, alleging that the property’s development potential has not been adequately valued. He claimed BMC’s valuation of the land was revised from Rs 1,822 crore to Rs 1,641 crore and finally to Rs 1,348 crore, while Peddar Realty’s winning bid of Rs 1,351 crore was only Rs 3 crore above the reserve price.
Pednekar said the opposition raised its concerns in a mock parliament staged outside the civic headquarters and later met additional municipal commissioner (eastern suburbs) Avinash Dhakne. They are also held hostage,” she said. Congress Group Leader Ashraf Azmi said the opposition symbolically “rejected” all the proposals during the mock parliament. “This was done to make sure that everyone knows that the opposition in the BMC was not mum when the looting of public assets was going on,” he said.
“If you are going to clear all these proposals without even taking into account what we want to say, what is the point of sitting inside? She alleged that several proposals were technically unfeasible and the opposition was only seeking to get them reworked and resubmitted in accordance with the law.
Leader of the Opposition Kishori Pednekar said the opposition had come prepared to point out deficiencies in the proposals and demand that they be rejected, but was not given an opportunity to be heard. That is why we walked out,” Pednekar told HT. “You cannot bypass the law,” she said, adding that the mayor cleared the proposals within minutes and “did not even look” at the opposition members or hear their concerns.
