Published On : Tue, Oct 15th, 2013

Corporators making a mockery of NMC’s GBM, harassing citizens with no solutions

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Nagpur News: The Bharatiya Janata Party, with a tag of disciplined and principled party, was exposed “delightfully’ by the NMC Corporators as the party of late latif and unconcerned towards problems of citizens. The fact was adequately revealed when the BJP Corporators tore apart Mayor’s directive to attend the General Body Meeting of the civic body on time. Only 10 percent Corporators of the party showed their faces and other 90 per cent snubbing the Mayor in their own style.

MEETING ADJOURNED THRICE:

The General Body Meeting (GBM) was adjourned thrice due to lack of quorum within 52 minutes of the scheduled beginning time of 11 am. Till 11.52 am, only 20-22 Corporators of Ruling Party (BJJP) and 38-40 Corporators of Opposition were present in the House. Moreover, at least 12 Corporators of Ruling Party and about six members of Opposition were found sitting on the last benches chatting loudly, consuming and distributing “Gutkhas,” talking on mobiles and photographing during the entire period of the meeting. This attitude of the Corporators is nothing short of cheating the citizens who elected them with a hope of a problem-free life as far as NMC is concerned.

The “Devil may take care” attitude of Corporators is robbing the citizens of their rights to be protected by the “Fathers of the Wards” by raising their problems in the General Body Meeting. The start of the Meeting has been fixed at 11 am but practically, the meeting starts at least 2.2.30 hours behind schedule. And since the conclusion time of the meeting is strictly followed, the General Body Meeting emerges as a “Joke” on the citizens. The GBM is held only once in a month and since the list of questions to be raised by the members is big, discussion and solution of several crucial issues remain pending following shortened period of the Meeting. More the pending questions the longer the list. And no solutions in sight.

IRRESPONSIBLE ATTITUDE:

Moreover, the “Late Latif” Corporators create a scene over no discussion on their questions and call the Mayor “inefficient”. The Mayor Anil Sole, disappointed by the behaviour of the Corporators, had directed all the Corporators to attend the GBM at 11 am exactly so that several issues could be discussed and solutions hammered out. But the “Late Latif” members across the parties tore apart the Mayor’s directives thus snubbing the Mayor and also the citizens. The outcome of this negative aspect is the House was adjourned thrice due to lack of quorum and lack of responsibility on the part of members, too.

The list of pending questions is getting longer and longer only because of “Late Latif” Corporators. Although, the NMC Administration furnishes the written answers to the Corporators’ questions, the unsatisfied members hope to raise the same questions in the House for satisfactory answers and solutions to the citizens’ problems. The list of questions to be raised include 10 questions questions of May 18 GBM, 8 questions of June 3, 33 questions of July 18,12 questions of August 19, 17 questions of September 16 and 6 questions of October 11 meeting. The long list of questions could only be reduced by proper and satisfactory answers by the NMC Administration. The Mayor informed that in the next meeting, the Question Hour will be of two hours in order to remove the backlog.

REMOVE METRO ROUTE FROM TEMPLES:

The Chairman of Nagpur Improvement Trust Pravin Darade apprised the House of preparations for Metro Rail and requested the members to sanction the 5 per cent cost sharing proposal. However, intervening in the matter, Senior Corporator Dayashankar Tiwari informed the House that the Metro Rail route would be damaging the Poddareshwar Mandir and Ramkrishna Math in Dhantoli. The route should be changed, requested Tiwari. The NMC has to pay Rs 450.35 crore as its share for the Metro Rail project and is likely to be completed in 2021. The total cost of the project has been estimated at Rs 9007 crore out of which the Central Government and State Government would bear 20-20 per cent respectively, NMC and NIT 5-5 percent and the rest 50 per cent on the basis of BOT (Build, Operate, and Transfer). The first route would be from Automotive Square to Airport Mihan and the second route would be from Prajapati Nagar to Lokmanya Nagar.

PARIVAHAN COMMITTEE:

A Public Limited Company has been set up in the name of Nagpur City Parivahan Seva Limited. The Mayor has directed the Ruling Party to nominate 3 Corporators on the vacant posts in Parivahan Committee in accordance with the new rules of NMC. Accordingly, two Corporators of Ruling Nagpur Vikas Aghadi Divya Dhurde and Sumitra Jadhav and NCP’s Prakash Gajbhiye have been nominated on the Committee.

LAD COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION:

There are 820 posts of sanitation workers have been vacant in the NMC at present and 1200 applications are pending for the posts. The NMC Commissioner Shyam Wardhane informed the House that 270 beneficiaries of dead and VRS employees would be appointed in the first phase within 7 days in accordance with Lad Committee recommendations. Thereafter, every month 25-25 appointments would be made but only after considering the financial condition of the NMC. Intervening in the matter, Congress Corporator Sandip Sahare raised the issue discriminatory wages of Aiwajdars (sweepers) saying out of 72 workers 29 are being paid Rs 420 per day while rest of the workers are being paid Rs 220 per day. The Commissioner took the serious note of the issue and ordered the officials to put up all the information in this regard in the next General Body Meeting.