Elections near, NMC in a hurry to clear works

Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation, known for its dilly-dallying tactics, seems to be in a hurry to approve works before Election Commission’s code of conduct comes into effect. The poll dates are likely to be announced any time in next 10 days.
The civic departments have tabled 132 proposals before the standing committee seeking administrative approval and work orders for executing works during one-and-a-half-month-long elections.
Standing committee chairman Pradip Pohane has called a meeting on September 7 with 132 proposals worth crores on the agenda. Earlier, the meeting was held once a week or fortnight with an average of around 20-30 proposals being tabled. As the standing panel cannot meet during the code of conduct period, the departments have piled up proposals before the committee.
Pohane has organized the meeting at 11am on September 7, the day PM Narendra Modi will be in city to inaugurate a slew of projects. The chances of the meeting winding up in a few minutes and approving all proposals on the agenda without any discussions cannot be ruled out.
Some important proposals will come up for consideration. Work order to appoint two agencies for door-to-door garbage collection and transportation is one among the 132 proposals.
Another crucial proposal is to execute works of around Rs40 crore through the central government’s Wapcos Limited for pumping running water from Kanhan river and bring it to Pench water treatment plants. As Kanhan river is not having any barrage or reservoir, rainwater flows down during monsoon from July to December. Plan is to use this water for six months which would save water in Pench reservoirs for summer days.
A proposal before the committee is to pay Rs2,000 per month subsistence allowance to 1,000 persons with disabilities for a period of one year. Seems to be an election stunt, the project will cost Rs 2.40 crore per annum to the NMC.
There are many works which were approved by legislators of the city. The current tenure of six legislators including CM Devendra Fadnavis will come to an end with code of conduct coming into effect. Therefore, the civic body seems to push all works approved by legislators in the meeting.
Also, the NMC can begin works on ground and continue during elections in case work orders issued to private contractors before code of conduct coming into effect. This will pave way for execution of works as well as mileage to ruling party during elections.