Successor of shifted Panvel civic chief too takes on BJP

NAVI MUMBAI: Panvel municipal commissioner Ganesh Deshmukh has stunned the ruling BJP by declaring all the seven civic committees “illegal and invalid”, the first such move in the state.
The move is likely to put the new commissioner on a collision course with the ruling corporators, just like his predecessor, Sudhakar Shinde, who was shunted out last month.
Deshmukh said under the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949, only the standing committee, transport committee and ward-level committees were valid.
The issue came up when some committee heads sought official vehicles and remuneration for their personal assistants recently. All the committees are headed by the BJP.
Deshmukh last month replaced Shinde, who was shunted out of the two-year-old Panvel City Municipal Corporation by a reluctant state government after the BJP-dominated general body passed a no-confidence motion and complained that Shinde never consulted elected representatives.
By invalidating the committees, Deshmukh saved around Rs 40 lakh towards the cost of seven vehicles. Around Rs 6 lakh per annum expenditure towards salary of assistants was also saved.
Two of the committee heads had met Deshmukh on May 2. Prakash Binedar, president of the slum rehabilitation and redevelopment and social development committee, and Nilesh Baviskar, president of the water supply and sewerage committee, were told by Deshmukh that all the seven committees were invalid according to the rules framed under the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949.
Baviskar said the seven committees were formed in October last year.
“We had checked about the status of official vehicles and release of April month’s salary of our personal assistants being held up,” he said. “Such committees are in existence in NMMC (Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation), Pimpri-Chinchwad and other corporations. The vehicle purchase has been stalled and salary put on hold, which is very surprising.”
PCMC house leader Paresh Thakur said they were focusing on development works and all issues could have been discussed later.
“The water supply and sewerage committee headed by Nilesh Baviskar has spent around 60% of its budget,” he said. “This is the best among the committees.”
A Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) official said that the seven committees were like the ones formed in the smaller municipal councils.
“It is strange and surprising how these invalid committees had come into existence in a bigger municipal corporation like the PCMC,” the official said. “The committee presidents are asking officials to report to them besides reviewing their works. The commissioner has to review and suggest to the officers, but officers should not report to the committee heads. The elected representatives can raise their voice against the commissioner’s decision in the general body meeting but, technically, we are going according to the rules.”
Deshmukh said the elected representatives should pass the resolution for committees and get it approved from the state government for implementation.
“I have simply followed the rules framed under the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act,” he said. “Ward committees are allowed and have been formed.”