Ahead of BMC polls, civic departments rush to get proposals cleared

The BMC’s standing committee is expected to receive 20-30 more proposals in the next few days

With just a week left of the BMC's tenure, all civic departments, particularly health, rushed to get approval from the standing committee, which saw a four-fold rise in weekly proposals, said officials. The proposals combined seek clearance of Rs 2,000 crore, with 60 per cent being post-work approval.

Meanwhile, the civic administration needs the standing committee's permission for a transfer of Rs 1,000 crore for the money spent during the third Covid-19 wave. The committee may conduct one or two meetings until March 7, the last day of the BMC's tenure. While it generally gets 40 to 50 proposals a week, the figure rose to 179 last week, with 20-30 more proposals expected in the next few days.

Alleging corruption, BJP MLC Rajhans Singh said, "It would not be appropriate to approve such a large number of proposals in the last meeting, amid the Income Tax department's search at the house of committee's chairman Yashwant Jadhav."

A proposal to fill trenches worth Rs 387 crore will be discussed in the standing committee meeting on Wednesday. There are four separate proposals for desilting of nullahs worth R65 crore, for a few parts of the city. Proposals for other parts of the city may come in upcoming meetings.