The no confidence motion against Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe was passed on Tuesday at a special general body meeting with 104 out of 111 corporators voting in favour of it.
After the voting, Mayor Sudhakar Sonawane wrote a letter to Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale asking him to direct Mr. Mundhe to refrain from attending office from Wednesday. Mr. Sonawane said Mr. Mundhe could attempt to initiate action against the corporators as a revenge or the people opposed to him could stage protests. He said he will ask the State government to appoint an officer from either CIDCO or Zilla Parishad for the time being.
However, Mr. Nagrale told The Hindu, “I can’t give any instructions to Mr. Mundhe. It is the prerogative of the government. I will submit the representation made by the Mayor to the government.”
Without a discussion
Earlier, 20 minutes after the house convened, Leader of the House Jaywant Sutar moved the no confidence motion, which was endorsed by standing committee chairman Shivram Patil under Section 36(3) of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act. Without a discussion, the Mayor put the motion for voting. Corporators raised their hands to cast their votes and the Mayor passed the resolution. Among the 111 corporators, NCP corporator Naveen Gavate was not present, making it 104 votes in support of the motion. Six BJP corporators voted against it. The NCP has 52 corporators, Shiv Sena 38, the Congress has 10 corporators, while five are Independent.
On October 20, the standing committee had proposed a no confidence motion against Mr. Mundhe citing allegations concerning his autocratic style of functioning and 14 of the 16 members had supported it. The members alleged that the commissioner took decisions disregarding the general body and the Mayor, insulted the elected representatives, and incited general public against the corporators. The corporators also alleged that Mr. Mundhe was defaming Navi Mumbai by exposing scams.
“Initially, we supported him when he disciplined his officers. But he never heard our problems. He never gave us time to meet in person. He is a non-corrupt man and we are not mad to go against him, but there are problems due to his autocratic behaviour which we are against,” Shiv Sena corporator Kishor Patkar said after the voting.
Mr. Sonawane said, “Twice I had gone to meet the Commissioner at his house to discuss issues, but not even once did he meet me at my chamber or ask me to come back later. I had told him in the beginning of his tenure that he had served as a Collector, and he will need time to get out of that role, but it seems that he did not understand that.”
Claims denied
Denying the claims, Mr. Mundhe said he had himself invited the Mayor to his residence to resolve any differences. After the Mayor boycotted the NMMC, he had contacted him through Additional Commissioner Ankush Chavan. “Since he did not respond, I personally had called him and asked him that I will come down to meet him in his chamber. So the allegations that I did not give them time or did not approach the Mayor after he boycotted, is totally baseless,” Mr. Mundhe said, adding, “I was appointed by the State government and I will obey what it orders.”
Mr. Mundhe was not given a chance to make a statement. “I will be here till I am transferred. I had requested the Mayor to give me a chance to speak which I was not given. Respecting his chair, I did not attempt to speak. The allegations that I did not give any time to corporators is baseless. My office is open from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily for any visitor and I had specifically kept the 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. slot on Wednesdays for the corporators to meet me. But in the span of five months, no corporator has ever come to meet me.”
The writer is a freelancer journalist
Mayor has asked
the top cop to direct Mundhe to refrain from attending office from today
