Mundhe conspired with Sena MLAs seeking NMC’s dissolution: Joshi

Nagpur: Mayor Sandip Joshi on Thursday accused municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe of hatching a conspiracy against BJP for dissolving the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).
Addressing the media, Joshi pointed out that Mundhe was in Mumbai on Wednesday and was seen in a tweet posted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state chief and senior cabinet minister Jayant Patil.
The mayor claimed that the details provided in the calling attention motion by four Shiv Sena MLAs from Mumbai — Sunil Prabhu, Prakash Phaterpekar, Ramesh Korgaonkar and Ajay Choudhari — demanding dissolution of the NMC were exactly the same as uttered by the municipal commissioner during the NMC general body meeting on February 20.
The calling attention motion was admitted by speaker Nana Patole and is likely to come up in the House either on Friday or Monday.
“Ironically, the issue being raised by four Mumbai MLAs is not endorsed by even a single Congress MLA from the city, including city Congress president and MLA Vikas Thakre. This indicates that the motion is a move by Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi just to defame the BJP-ruled NMC,” Joshi said.
“Even Vikas Thakre told me over phone that the calling attention motion by four Shiv Sena MLAs has tarnished the city’s image,” he said.
According to Joshi, it was due to immense efforts taken by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the city witnessed huge development works including AIIMS, Metro rail, National Law University, IIM and IIIT etc from 2014 to 2019. “This apparently did not go down well with the Shiv Sena-led government,” he said.
The mayor also reviewed all six queries raised by the Shiv Sena MLAs and claimed that the general body has already sought detailed information on rise in NMC’s liabilities from Rs500 crore to Rs800 crore. He will present the details of NMC’s financial status of the last 12 years in the general body meeting this month.
According to him, the past municipal commissioners had regularly monitored the NMC’s financial condition and they revised the budget of the standing committee chairmen whenever they felt necessary.
“Since Mundhe joined the NMC on January 28 this year, the civic body’s image is being projected as financially weak. Is it that until Mundhe took over, there was no issues with the NMC’s financial condition?” he said in a caustic remark.
Joshi said if the situation of the NMC was so poor then why didn’t it default on any loan instalments.
He also claimed that due to poor administration, the NMC is yet to receive state government’s share of Rs982 crore for major projects.
Refuting the allegation that standing committee chairmen diverted provident fund contributions and other mandatory dues of employees to pay outstanding dues of contractors, the mayor said it was chief accounts and finance officer (CAFO) who makes the payments. “The then CAFO Madan Gadge had diverted Rs8 crore of PF contributions to pay the dues of contractors. Similarly, the then CAFO Mona Thakur used Rs40 crore to clear the bills of contractors,” he claimed.
Joshi said the Sena MLAs made contradictory statements in their calling attention motion. “On one hand, they blamed the NMC for diverting funds of PF dues to clear bills of contractors and on the other hand, they claimed that the BJP-ruled civic body had deprived citizens of basic civic amenities,” he said.
“There is no financial crisis in the NMC as development works including cement road works, 24X7 water supply project, garbage free city etc are being carried out in a very planned manner,” he said. The mayor urged the four Shiv Sena MLAs not to tarnish the city’s image.
“If we did anything wrong, conduct an inquiry and we are ready to face any action,” he said.
To a query, Joshi said that the BJP ruled civic body has no intention to bring no-confidence motion against the municipal commissioner. “We are satisfied with the works he has undertaken like anti-encroachment drives, instilling discipline in NMC’s work culture etc,” the mayor said.
The mayor also declared that if the MVA government dissolves the BJP-ruled civic body, they will challenge the decision and hit the streets to fight the decision tooth and nail.