Mumbai: Is BMC campaigning for BJP? asks NCP

Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday claimed that as per reports Mumbai civic wards held by the Bharatiya Janata Party will get most of the funds allotted in the recent budget of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMCThis could possibly be three times more than other wards which had corporators from other political parties NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said in a statementThis move by the BMC commissioner raises a question is the BMC campaigning for BJP he askedThe obvious answer seems yes because the allocation of maximum funds to these specific BJPdominated wards will help the party to impress upon the voters and gain their votes in the forthcoming municipal elections Crasto claimedOn February 4 the BMC presented Rs 5261907 crore budget for the year 202324 with the emphasis on health education and infrastructure and the budgetary estimates crossing the Rs 50000 crore mark for the first timeIn good news for residents of Mumbai where civic polls are due no fresh tax was leviedAlso Read Never expected this from Fadnavis says NCP MP Sule on 2019 govt formation claimSignificantly the BMC would tap into some of its fixed deposits FDs worth more than Rs 88000 crore for development projects the move comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken here about funds being locked in banksThis is the first time in the history of the countrys richest civic body that the budgetary estimates for FY 202324 have crossed the Rs 50000 croremark and the capital expenditure is more than 50 per cent BMC commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal had saidCrasto claimed the BJP which is in power in the state is making sure the BMC is under its thumb and is smartly using its leaders to speak against the corporations workings to show the people that they are keeping a watch but the truth is it is just a ploy to divert the attention from favouritism behind the scenesThe NCP leader accused the BJP of hitting two birds with one stone trying to gain votes and on the other side cutting to size former corporators of the Eknath Shinde Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena group because all the wards which had corporators from this group are being given much lesser funds than the BJP wards despite being in alliance in the state governmentA move that Eknath Shinde faction must look at seriously he saidCrasto demanded that BMC commissioner Chahal answer why the maximum amount of peoples money was being allocated to the BJP dominated wards in the cityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever