Former Mayor Maya Iwnate was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. On Monday, she received the election certificate in Mumbai. She was among seven candidates from Maharashtra who were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha. For Iwnate’s political career, it’s a silver lining as the election to Parliament’s Upper House marks a significant milestone. Coming from Adivasi background, her dedication and devoted work for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prompted the party bosses to utilise Iwnate’s rich experience in Rajya Sabha.

 

As only seven candidate submitted their nomination for as many Rajya Sabha seats, all of them were elected unopposed. Iwnate collected her election certificate at Mumbai on Monday. Coming from humble background, Iwnate was chosen for third term to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). She was Mayor from December 15, 2007, to December 23, 2009. Iwnate was chosen by BJP after the then Mayor Deorao Umredkar’s caste certificate was found invalid and he got disqualified as corporator. As the post of Mayor that time was reserved for candidate from Scheduled Tribe, Iwnate was chosen by BJP party bosses. Iwnate has rich administrative and political experience as she has also worked in the BJP’s Mahila Morcha in various capacities. Also, she worked as Member of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST). Earlier, after submitting the nomination form, Iwnate had come to city and was accorded grand welcome by local BJP leaders. She was congratulated on being picked up for the Rajya Sabha nomination. 

 

budget has to be approved by Standing Committee before it is referred to House for approval. The administration of civic body has been working the receipts that they expected by March and based on that will allocate funds to ongoing works and to various departments. The budget was almost finalised under previous Municipal Commissioner. The new Commissioner is going to go through the proposals before tabling the same for consideration of Standing Committee as per the procedure. The civic body facing quite a challenging task is meeting the target of nearly Rs 5,500 crore outlay laid out in the annual budget.

 

This year the receipts from Town Planning and from Property Tax are way below the expectations. Due to elections and other administrative work allocated by State Government, the staff got deployed on other duties that led to diversion and this led to shortfall in collection. However the below par receipts from Town Planning are real eye opener as civic administration was having high expectations, as they were banking on ongoing boom in realty sector. Last year alone the receipts on this account head was way more than the set target and hence in the budget the amount expected in current year was quite high. So the dismal performance is going to open the Town Planing to scrutiny as previously the elected office bearers blamed improper supervision on part of superiors to the revenue shortfall. Particularly the decision taken by NMC to reverse the hike in sky sign advertisement also hit hard the revenue collection. 

 

 

The first meeting of newly elected Standing Committee is fixed for Friday is also going to accept the proposal for purchase of new set of vehicles for office bearers, including Mayor plus the Municipal Commissioner. For the two, Innova Hycross is being sought and for the same a sum of Rs 65,16198 is earmarked in the note prepared by the administration. Besides them for Deputy Mayor and other office-bearers, Scorpio (6) are going to be purchased and for the same a sum of Rs 89,68,482 is earmarked. Similarly, a sum of Rs 40,19,610 is fixed for payment of taxes, and other accessories for these new vehicles. In all, expenditure of Rs 1,95,04,290 is expected on the purchase of new set of vehicles.