Thane civic chief storms out of meet as babus and netas spar

THANE: Thane municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal stormed out of the general body on Friday along with the entire bureaucracy following a spat with BJP corporators in the house.
While there had been some fireworks between the netas and the commissioner in the house earlier this month, the situation blew up when BJP corporator Krishna Patil complained he was not satisfied with administration’s response on the number of officials who had been given extensions.
Jaiswal informed that the chief accounts and finance auditor, Kiran Tayde, was the only such official. He said an application for Tayde’s extension had been made to the state after his tenure ended last year. However, when Patil persisted in his queries, it led to an argument between the commissioner and the corporators. Jaiswal lost his cool and asked the corporator to stop his blackmailing tactics.
When the corporators sought an apology from Jaiswal, he stormed out of the house with senior officials in tow. The commissioner later spoke to a section of the media. He said certain corporators were targeting him personally in the house.
The Sena refused to support the BJP, while NCP and Congress corporators remained spectators to the drama. It is believed that senior leaders from Shiv Sena and BJP stepped in to ensure proceedings were conducted in the second session. The post-lunch session saw additional commissioner R Ahiwar representing the administration.