Shiv Sena leader and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar has written to incumbent Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Chahal, asking him to not cancel tenders/ decisions made by the Standing Committee before March 8 this year.
Urging the civic body administration to not get bogged down by corruption allegations, she requested Chahal to not change decisions made by the Standing Committee.
“Many corporators and officials called me saying that some decisions taken before March 7 were tweaked. I don’t know how true this is, but I have written a letter that says decisions that were cleared by the general body must not be changed,” she wrote.
The Mumbai Mayor claimed, “Some opposition party leaders are trying to get decisions changed. The administrator must not tweak any decisions till the new general body is elected in the next four months. You can make new decisions as an administrator, but if you change old decisions, then it is not fair.”
It must be mentioned that the BMC elections will be held in October- November this year and that the tenure of Shiv Sena in the civic body ended on March 7, 2022. Thereafter, the Maharashtra government appointed BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal as the civic body’s administrator.
While speaking about the matter to Free Press Journal, Pednekar claimed, “I am not disappointed with the administrator. I have only made suggestions to him.” BMC Commissioner has however claimed that no decision by the Standing Committee was cancelled by him.
The development comes after BJP had alleged corruption while awarding contracts for some of the projects, including a ₹160-cr tender for constructing a tunnel laundry and a ₹291 crore project for building new animal enclosures in Byculla.
Both of these projects were cancelled by the BMC Commissioner, although they did not have the approval of the Standing Committee. According to BJP leader Prabhakar Shinde, the Sena had bypassed rules and approved several project proposals in the Standing Committee.
“Many times they didn’t allow BJP members to even speak during the meeting. If proposals and decisions which are not related to public interest have been cancelled by the commissioner then we welcome move,” he added.
