BMC chief sanctions 103 pending civic proposals in a week

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 18The proposals are worth Rs 20002500 crore including major projects like hospital construction and nullah wideningIqbal Singh Chahal BMC commissioner said ldquoWe have cleared 103 out of 123 pending proposals and the remaining ones will be cleared on MondayrdquoThe 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 clearanceAdministrator takes chargeEven 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 nonclarity over forming a panel ldquoThere isnrsquot 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 administratorrdquo said an official from the BMCldquoMany 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 ordersrdquo said another officialProposals to be cleared dailyThere are four statutory committeesmdashStanding 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 monthsOn April 7 the commissioner finally issued a circular stating that all proposals should be addressed to the administrator through themunicipal secretary departmentEarlier 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 ldquoThe proposals will be cleared on a daily basis by the administratorrdquo said a civic officialBMC had allotted Rs 22646 crore for various projects and infrastructure work in the 202223 budget which means proposals worth R2000 crore will get clearance from the administrator in a month18Day other pending proposals will be cleared