Corporators push for the garden beautification works ahead of BMC polls

With just one year to go before the municipal elections, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started receiving proposals to beautify various gardens and open spaces in Mumbai's 24 municipal wards. The Garden Infrastructure Cell of the Civil Body has received 164 suggestions from various municipal corporators to carry out beautification work in the horticultural areas of their constituencies within the next eleven months.    In the M East ward (Govandi, Mankurd) 20 suggestions have come from the advertisement.  There have been 15 suggestions from L Ward (Kurla Sakinaka).  Senior officials in the GIC department said the beautification work was the easiest way for public representatives to show that development work has been achieved during their tenure. Municipal corporators want to speed up development work, as many want to hold a groundbreaking ceremony just before next year's election” said a senior civic official at the Garden Cell. Officials added that the cell approves each project based on the importance of the job. According to BMC law, a public representative can approach the cell to carry out development work only if a garden or open space is in poor condition. 

However, officials said some delegates were trying to beautify the gardens, which were already in good condition. "We have been facing a labour shortage for the past one year and the budget for horticulture has been slashed in the wake of the epidemic. A total of 94 gardens have been beautified and 35 more gardens are being beautified since the last election from 2017 to 2019, officials said. 

Municipal elections are likely to be held in February 2022.  The Shiv Sena, which currently has 97 corporators, is the ruling party in the BMC.  It is followed by the BJP with 83 corporators and the Congress with 29 corporators.