Mumbai: Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar felt at home as he entered The Free Press House on Friday evening. With the setting sun as the backdrop, the First Citizen of Mumbai spoke at length with inhouse mediapersons, sharing anecdotes about the Shiv Sena party and recounted his halcyon days. He was visiting to participate in a dialogue, ‘Navshakti Samwad’.
The mayor pointed out that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was leaving no stone unturned to lessen Mumbaikars’ woes as far as nullah cleaning, potholes and flooding were concerned. “Normally, the formula we opt for during monsoon preparedness is ‘60-20-20’. That is, we finish 60% of desilting operations before the monsoon strikes, 20% during monsoon and the remaining 20%, post-monsoon,” Mahadeshwar said, adding, “But this year we have revised our formula to ’70-15-15′. So we can say that we are well-prepared for monsoon this year.”
Mahadeshwar also said that it is corporators who form the roots of the city. “Earlier, corporators were calle ‘nagarpita’– father of the area. But Balasaheb Thackeray said it should be ‘nagarsevak’— facilitator of the area– because ultimately we are mere servers of our people. We cannot and should not be father of any area,” he added.
The mayor also assured Mumbaikars that should there be any floods this monsoon, immediate action would be taken to ensure citizens are least affected. “If rainfall is below 300 mm, there are no chances of flooding in the city. But if it exceeds the limit, considering that Mumbai is an island city, it will flood. But we will ensure people don’t face any problems this time around,” he said.