The Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday, May 29, 2012.
This can be termed as nothing less than a scam by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The civic body has spent public money to the tune of Rs 50 lakh on nine rooms which were allotted to political parties when actually there is no official provision for such an expenditure or facility.
According to information obtained under Right to Information (RTI) Act by the leader of opposition group Vikas Thakre, the general administration department (GAD) had allotted office rooms to four political parties - NCP, Shiv Sena, BSP and RJD-Lokmanch - on March 23, 2007 following directives of the then mayor Devrao Umredkar. Later, more office rooms were allotted to another four political parties - RPI Aghadi-Bahujan Republican Ekta Manch, MNS, Adim Samvidhan Sanrakshan Samiti and independent corporators group - on October 25, 2007. This time the directives to the effect were issued by the then mayor Maya Iwnate.
Another office room was also allotted to Muslim League but has no mention about it in the RTI details. A total of nine such offices were allotted to political parties. The RTI document makes it very clear that these office rooms were actually meant for department heads but were allotted to political parties by bypassing the rules and regulation. As if this was not sufficient, political parties also had their say in which office rooms they would occupy. When four political parties were allotted office rooms on the first floor, they insisted on occupying the ones on the ground floor.
Of the eight political parties, Muslim League and Adim Samvidhan Sanrakshan Samiti had just one corporator each and MNS had two corporators.
The RTI details reveal that the civic body had deployed six class-IV employees as attendants for these office rooms. NMC spent Rs 33.31 lakh towards salaries of these six staffers. The actual expenditure on these party office rooms is much more than Rs 33.31 lakh, sources told TOI. "Offices were renovated after being allotted to the political parties costing at least a few more lakhs. Office rooms allotted to four political parties also had antechambers. Apart from cell phone and SIM cards facility, these offices were given a landline, electricity and water connection along with stationary. After calculating all these expenses the total cost incurred on NMC in maintaining these office rooms for various political parties turns out to be a whopping Rs 50 lakh," sources informed.
The NMC carried out all these expenses by spending public money collected through various taxes. This irresponsible expenditure by the civic body will come up for discussion during the general body special meeting scheduled for May 30. The ruling party is likely to face the brunt for spending such a huge amount without official provision.
Thakre told TOI that the civic body can spend public money only as per NMC's CNC Act or bylaws of the state government. "But in this case, huge amounts were spent on party office rooms by violating the norms. NMC should recover the entire expenditure. The BJP-led ruling party violated the norms just to woo party leaders," he alleged.
Leader of ruling party Praveen Datke said, "The decision to allot office rooms to the political parties is justified. Citizens come to the party leaders with various problems. The party leaders are available at the office rooms to address citizens' problems. In case of lack of such office rooms, where will the party leaders meet the citizens? I thank mayor Anil Sole for directing the officials to take a policy decision in this regard."
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