Now, councillors can select open spaces’ caretakers

Mumbai: Councillors and the chairperson of the civic improvement committee and garden committee will now have a say in handing over open spaces to private organisations, NGOs and citizens groups. Thus, Shiv Sena, which is the largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), will have a key role to play in this. Initially, the decision was taken only by the administration. On Thursday, the civic body passed the interim policy for open spaces after a delay of a year. According to the new policy, NGOs and private organisations can adopt open spaces after applying for the same but they will not be allowed to carry out any commercial work.

“The decision to include councillors and committee heads was taken a year back, at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in control of the improvement committee. But the corporation passed the policy very late and now the powers have changed,” said a senior civic official who requested anonymity. Initially, a committee that comprises of an area level ward officer monitored applications. Caretakers of plots would make an application to the committee to maintain plots. BMC officials suspect that if councillors are involved in this committee, personal interests may interfere in the process.  

The civic body has 216 plots, out of which the civic body took 187 plots back after an order by CM Devendra Fadnavis’ order in 2016. The remaining 29 plots belong to political bigwigs. Meanwhile, the new interim policy, which was passed on Thursday, clearly states that no construction will be allowed on the plots and the space should be open for citizens.