Amid crisis, NMC sees tug of war between Mayor, Municipal Commr
| Date :02-Apr-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
While the world is engaged in a battle to overcome pandemic of COVID-19, here in second capital of Maharashtra a tug of war has broken out between administration and the politicians. Mayor Sandip Joshi has taken another swipe at administration asking them to streamline fogging exercise in the city as complaints have risen about half hearted efforts of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). With the city under lockdown and city fathers too greatly affected, Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has taken centre stage hogging all the mileage much to the chagrin of elected representatives.
The social media is adding to misfortune of city fathers as people are taking potshots at them and questioning their disappearance when their services were needed the most by the society. Joshi expressed his displeasure with civic administration for by-passing corporators before deploying the fogging machines and undertaking sanitisation exercise in the Prabhags. Public representatives are flooded with complaints that fogging carried out by NMC machinery was not upto standards and also sanitisation carried out was not upto desired level.
Taking the cue Mayor lashed out the civic administration and asked them to keep the corporators in loop. A controversy had also broken in Jaripatka area after some self motivated citizens claimed the sanitisation exercise is sham claiming that only plain water was being sprinkled in name of disinfectant. Subsequently, administration swung into action and hauled the spirited citizens for misleading claim. Mundhe and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is each exercising their fire power to dominate the civic space and not willing to cede space to each other. Mayor submitted a letter to Municipal Commissioner calling for fogging and sanitisation in city to control mosquito menace and highlighted anxiety among citizens in backdrop of outbreak of coronavirus that is declared as pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO). Mayor on Wednesday reminded administration that he had ordered fogging and sanitisation about a week back and yet on ground the efforts required on part of NMC is not seen.
Whatever fogging was done it was just part of show piece and citizens are not satisfied by such measures and they expect more deeper steps from civic body. As per the practice, the administration consults corporators and the exercise of fogging is carried out in city. However Mayor underlined that this time however Municipal Commissioner without taking elected representatives into confidence has conducted the exercise of fogging and sanitisation resulted in complaints. Joshi said this is not acceptable while expressing his dissatisfaction over the state of municipal affairs. Mayor directed administration to move fogging machines deep inside the dense localities.