BMC Elections 2022: With an eye on the next elections, the BMC plans to submit 179 project proposals totalling Rs 2,300 crores

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is dripping with ideas ahead of what might be the final standing committee meeting on Wednesday, March 2. The Mumbai civic body's standing committee seemed to be in a haste to clear 179 requests for acquisitions and projects totalling Rs 2,300 crores this week, as the corporators' tenure ends next week.

 

The current corporators' term ends next week, on March 8, 2022, therefore this is likely to be the last standing committee meeting. As a result, it's possible that applications worth hundreds of millions of rupees will be approved in a matter of hours on Wednesday. Apart from the General Body, the Standing Committee is one of the BMC's top decision-making bodies.

 

The BJP has requested that all of the standing committee's proposals be withdrawn. "It is not appropriate to approve such a large number of proposals worth thousands of crores before the committee, given the raid by the Income-tax department and objections and opposition raised by us during the last standing committee meeting," BJP leader and MLC Rajhans Singh said in a press statement.

 

This is ostensibly the final standing committee meeting of the current corporator term, which ends on March 8 and after which the BMC would be unable to pass any important proposals. The only justification for the haste to get last-minute projects (of 2,300 crores) approved is the last standing committee meeting.

 

 

The idea has been met with opposition from BJP councillors. "This will not be tolerated. Only the most pressing and urgent proposals should be presented, debated, and approved. Why are you in such a hurry? The idea to clear jumbo centre payments is a ruse, which we have already condemned. If these measures are passed quickly and without debate, we would take legal action "Vinod Mishra, a BJP corporator, agreed.

 

According to the plans to be tabled on Wednesday, the Mumbai civic body has spent a total of Rs 3,461 crore on various Covid-19 control measures between March 2020 and February 11, 2022. The BMC has declared that it has set aside Rs 3,700 crore for Covid-19 expenditure during the last two years. The local authority calculated a bill of Rs 2,764 crore for combatting Covid-19 in the budget 2022-23 and requested reimbursement from the state for all of these costs.