BMC chief sanctions 103 pending civic proposals in a week

Iqbal Singh Chahal. File pic

A month after the plan to form a committee to clear civic proposals was scrapped, the civic body administrator this week has cleared 103 of the 123 pending proposals. The rest will be cleared on Monday (April 18).

The proposals are worth Rs 2,000-2,500 crore including major projects like hospital construction and nullah widening.

Iqbal Singh Chahal, BMC commissioner said, "We have cleared 103 out of 123 pending proposals and the remaining ones will be cleared on Monday."

The term of the corporation ended on March 7 and even though the meetings of the standing committee were held back to back, 123 proposals were pending clearance.

Administrator takes charge

Even after the power to approve the proposals was given to the administrator (civic chief), they had been pending clearance for over a month due to non-clarity over forming a panel. "There isn't any mention in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act about forming a panel. The administrator has all the power and even if the panel is formed, the whole responsibility of sanctioning proposals will remain only with the administrator," said an official from the BMC.

"Many projects and monsoon work were halted as the proposals were pending. But now most of them have got the clearance. The proposals will be sent from the administrator to the municipal secretary department and through them to the department concerned to issue work orders," said another official.

Proposals to be cleared daily

There are four statutory committees - Standing, Improvement, Best and Education Committee, and there are around 300 to 400 proposals tabled in these committees each month. But as there was no clarity about the new procedure, departments did not send any proposals in the last months.
On April 7, the commissioner finally issued a circular stating that all proposals should be addressed to the administrator through the
municipal secretary department.

Earlier there was a deadline to clear the proposals within 30 days after it was tabled in the standing committee, but now no such deadline will be mentioned in the proposals. "The proposals will be cleared on a daily basis by the administrator," said a civic official.

BMC had allotted Rs 22,646 crore for various projects and infrastructure work in the 2022-23 budget, which means proposals worth R2,000 crore will get clearance from the administrator in a month.

18
Day other pending proposals will be cleared