POLICIES ON HOLD WELCOME NEW CIVIC BODY

will the policies and schemes that the Shiv Sena and BJP fought over in the past five years turn out once the new batch of corporators take charge of the BMC on March 9?

Take the open spaces policy for instance. It has been in the mak ing for more than a decade now and will decide on who will take care of the city’s 1,160 open spa ces. The policy awaits the nod o the newly elected general body Depending on the composition o the of the general body, a fina decision about the policy will be made. If not approved, the policy can once again go back to the drawing board. An interim open spaces policy — under which pri vate organisations, NGOS and cit izens’ groups will maintain 226 plots — was passed by the improvements committee hur riedly before the poll code of con duct came into effect. But to be implemented, it had to be passed by the general body and this did not happen. It will now be put up before the newly formed genera body next month.

Another policy hurriedly approved a few days before pol code by the state government but awaits implementation was the hawkers policy, which has been in cold storage for more than two years. The decision on hawking and non-hawking zones will be made by the town vending com mittee that comprises hawkers unions’ representative and the newly elected corporators. Other pending decisions include the parking policy and publishing the final report on the roads scam.

The probe panel submitted a report to civic chief Ajoy Mehta but he sent it back it in October saying it was incomplete and incomprehensible. BMC sources earlier said the report will be made public after polls. Citizen groups have questioned the delay. “CM Devendra Fadnavis who fought polls on transparency plank, should have used his power to make the report public and highlight his message. It should have been made public last year ,” said Nikhil Desai, a cit izen activist.