In the first post-election general body meeting, BMC names Ganesh Khankar as Leader of House and Kishori Pednekar as Leader of Opposition | File Photo
Mumbai, Feb 16: The BMC’s first general body meeting of all 227 corporators, after the mayoral election, was held on Monday, where BJP’s group leader Ganesh Khankar was declared as the Leader of the House, while Shiv Sena UBT’s Kishori Pednekar was declared as the Leader of Opposition in the BMC House.
Mayor Ritu Tawde also announced the members of the crucial statutory committees — Standing, Improvement, Education and BEST. The chairpersons of these committees will be elected in their respective first meetings, scheduled next week.
Standing Committee composition draws attention
All eyes were on who were nominated as the members of the Standing Committee, which takes all financial decisions of the richest municipal corporation of India.
The 26-member committee includes 10 members from the BJP, seven from Shiv Sena (UBT), four from Shinde Sena, three from Congress and one each from MNS and AIMIM.
The Standing Committee’s chairmanship will go to the BJP, and top names that emerged for the chairman are Prabhakar Shinde, Makarand Narwekar and Prakash Darekar. The chairman will be declared in the first Standing Committee meeting, scheduled on February 20.
Slogans and heated exchanges in House
The general body meeting commenced amid slogans by Shiv Sena UBT corporators, who are sitting in the opposition after 30 long years. Slogans like “pannas khoke ekdam okay” (Rs 50 crore are okay) were raised against the Shinde Sena corporators when the mayor was announcing the committee members.
This led to heated arguments among both the Sena factions’ corporators, with Shinde Sena corporators alleging that Sena UBT corporators made disrespectful statements when the mayor was addressing the House and tried to disrupt the proceedings.
The House was adjourned after the mayor moved the motion of condolence on the death of a citizen in the Mulund parapet collapse incident. One citizen lost his life on the spot and three others were seriously injured after a parapet (slab) of the under-construction Metro 4 line came down on Saturday.
As the House was adjourned, the Leader of Opposition complained about not being given an opportunity for any of the corporators to speak on the mishap.
“The BJP did not want the opposition to highlight how grossly irresponsibly the Metro contractors are working in Mumbai. The real condolence would have been when the incident would have been discussed to ensure such incidents do not repeat,” Pednekar said while speaking with the media.
Box: 12 statues of historical figures to be moved to make space for corporators
Meanwhile, Mayor Ritu Tawde addressed all the corporators that it has been agreed that the statues of historical figures, including that of Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Babasaheb Ambedkar and others, will be respectfully moved from their current location to make space for additional seating arrangements.
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The BMC will have 10 nominated corporators, taking the total number of corporators to 237. A senior BMC officer said that there are 12 to 15 statues, which will be shifted either to one side in the hall or outside, which is yet to be finalised. However, it will be done before the next general body meeting scheduled on February 24.
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