Opp moves adjournment motion to embarrass Sena

Mumbai: Saturday’s heavy rains saw a heated debate in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee meeting, in which opposition party members tried to embarrass Shiv Sena, the ruling party, by moving an adjournment motion. They alleged that civic body’s lack of preparedness was the major reason behind the flooding across the city.

Opposition corporators said that, BMC claims of good monsoon preparations have been proven false by deaths like a small boy drowning in a roadside drain to a girl dying due to a tree collapse.

Opposition leader Ravi Raja from Congress moved an adjournment motion saying that, the civic standing committee meeting should be adjourned over the issue. “Before the monsoon, the BMC had made tall claims that all pre-monsoon preparations had been done. However, in the first major rains itself the city was flooded causing a lot of inconvenience to Mumbaikars,” he said.

“The BMC has spent crores of rupees on the construction of pumping station to ease flooding at Hindmata, which is a chronic water logging spot. Still, the area gets flooded every year. Along with the civic administration, the ruling party Shiv Sena should take responsibility of the failure,” said Mr Raja.

Another Congress corporator Asif Zakeria said that, at a time when Mumbai is called an international city, such kind of incidents like flooding, people dying due to tree crashes or people falling in drains is unacceptable.

However, senior Sena corporator Mangesh Satamkar said , the flooding took place due to particular topography of some parts of the city. “Areas like Hindmata are saucer shaped and are bound to get flooded during heavy rains. However, what is important is to ensure that the water ge-ts drained fast.” he said.