Amid uproar over city roads riddled with potholes, opposition parties have come out in support of Congress’s announcement to bring ‘No Confidence Motion’ against the BMC Commissioner in the next Standing Committee meeting of the Sena-ruled civic body.
The BJP, however, has come out in support of BMC chief Ajoy Mehta, saying that the official should be credited for exposing the multi-crore road scam.
Principal Opposition party in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Congress on Thursday announced to bring a ‘No Confidence Motion’ against Mehta over the issue of potholes in Standing Committee’s next meeting scheduled on October 21.
Shiv Sena group leader in the BMC, Trushna Vishwasrao said, “We are going to support the No Confidence Motion being brought by Congress because we feel that administration is playing its own politics.”
NCP group leader Dhananjay Pisal alleged that those officials close to Mehta are “misleading the house and people on the number of potholes.”
“Under the leadership of current the Commissioner, BMC has repeatedly set and missed deadlines to fill potholes. Officers close to him are misleading the house and people by saying that there are only 35 potholes. The Commissioner should know that there are more that 100 potholes just outside the BMC headquarters where he sits,” he said.
Samajwadi Party group leader Rais Sheikh claimed that the BMC chief is “misleading” people on the number of potholes.
MNS, which has launched a scathing campaign against potholes, has warned Mehta that if all potholes are filled by Diwali (October end), he will face the same protest as meted out to a senior civic engineer last week.
Chief engineer (Roads) Sanjay Darade was forced to hold a humiliating placard by MNS workers, reading that he was responsible for potholes on Mumbai roads.
MNS group leader in the House, Sandeep Deshpande said, “We have given an ultimatum to Mehta that if potholes are not filled before Diwali, then our workers would make him stand with placard, stating that he is responsible for potholes.”
BJP group leader Manoj Kotak, on the other hand, attacked the ruling Shiv Sena and the engineer-contractor nexus for the sorry state of roads, while backed Mehta for his honesty.
“Should Mehta be punished just because he unearthed a huge road scams in the city. Our party feels he should be facilitated for his act of honesty,” Kotak said.
“Shiv Sena and engineers are responsible for the pothole-ridden roads and both are trying to mount pressure on the civic chief,” he alleged.
Prior to his appointment as the BMC Commissioner in 2015, Mehta was principal secretary (Environment).
