Corporators get 45-day deadline to clear all proposals
Soon, your corporators will not be able to sit on proposals, like those for acquiring land for open spaces, beyond 45 days. The state cabinet on Friday cleared an amendment that mandates a specific timeframe for clearing proposals and limits dilly-dallying by corporators.
Soon, your corporators will not be able to sit on proposals, like those for acquiring land for open spaces, beyond 45 days. The state cabinet on Friday cleared an amendment that mandates a specific timeframe for clearing proposals and limits dilly-dallying by corporators.
The state’s urban development department ushered in this reform through an amendment to the existing Bombay Municipal Corporation Act. As per the amendment, various committees like the standing committee and the improvements committee of the civic body that clears development proposals and proposals pertaining to land policy will have to clear them within 45 days.
The general body of the BMC will be given 90 days to clear proposals. The time limit of 45 days will start from the first meeting of the committee held after the proposal is brought to the office of the municipal secretary. With the stipulated time, the committee can clear the proposal and forward it to the general body or reject it. It cannot indefinitely delay the proposal. The decision can speed up proposals including road works, water supply repairs or land acquisition.
“At least, they (corporators) will have to take a decision one way or the other. They cannot sit on decisions affecting the public,” said Manu Kumar Srivastava, principal secretary of UDD.
So far, corporators have not had to work under any deadlines. Typically, in the case of improvement proposals wherein land would have to be acquired for open spaces as per development plans, decisions are kept in abeyance for years.
That’s one of the reasons the city has lost its open spaces. If the BMC fails to act within a certain time period, land is encroached upon or the landowner can issue a purchase notice and buy back the land.