Chavan slams Mumbai corporation for fiscal indiscipline

NAGPUR - Setting the tone for the 2012 elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan Tuesday criticised the country’s richest civic body governed by the opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine for “financial indiscipline”.

Responding to a brief discussion in the ongoing winter session of the state assembly in this state’s second capital, Chavan said that “all is not well with the corporation” which has an annual budget of over Rs.20,000 crore, larger than some small Indian states.

He noted that the BMC had ignored laid-down norms of conducting financial transactions properly and also failed to prepare audited balance sheets for the past three years.

Chavan directed the BMC to submit its audited accounts for the past three years within the next two months. A high-ranking BMC official told IANS in Mumbai that the audited reports are ready and they would be tabled Jan 10.

Chavan noted that many cities around the world competed among themselves to conduct mega-events, developing large infrastructure, conventions and expo centres, and Mumbai does not fall short on this score. He, however, called for greater efficiency in managing the financial and administrative affairs of the BMC.

He added that members from the treasury benches were also seeking a probe into the BMC’s affairs by either the Central Bureau of Investigation or a Joint Legislative Committee.