Without Ajoy Mehta’s permission, local civic officials can no longer accompany corporators on site visits
BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta
The BMC commissioner has ruffled some feathers in the civic body with his new rule that will not allow officials to accompany corporators for site visits without the commissioner’s permission.
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BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta
Earlier, the officials used to be a call away from corporators for such visits. This means, if a corporator wants the local BMC officials to accompany him on visits to a nullah cleaning or market in his constituency so he can give them feedback on their work, he will not be able to do so without commissioner Ajoy Mehta’s permission. When asked about his diktat, Mehta confirmed it, saying, “The officers have been asked to take permission before accompanying public representatives.”
Obviously this hasn’t gone down well with corporators, who claim that if the administration did its job well, they wouldn’t need to call them to the spot. Avkash Jadhav, Sena corporator said, “There are many questions related to the work done that cannot be answered on phone or through SMS and that’s why it requires the presence of the officials on the spot. But this tactic is being used as work is mostly not done and the administration doesn’t want to be blamed.”
Although the rule has already been implemented, corporators plan on taking it up in the next meeting. Rais Shaikh, Standing Committee member and group leader of Samajwadi Party in the BMC, said, “No one can curb the powers of public representatives. This issue will be raised at a proper forum.”
Amid mounting speculation over the reason behind this rule, sources say it was done so Sena can no longer blame officials for dirty nullahs, as they had done before.
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