BMC officers wont get leave until pre-monsoon work is finished

Mumbai, May 24: In a bid to ensure that pre-monsoon preparatory tasks are completed in time, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta has cancelled all the leaves including weekly offs of concerned officers in 24 civic wards, said a senior official today.

This year monsoon is expected to arrive early. Hence the civic chief wanted every officer including deputy municipal Commissioner and assistant municipal Commissioner to be on task till further orders," said the officer adding that Mehta was not happy with pace of cleaning and drainage desilting work in the city.

He also said the civic chief took this decision in a review meeting of the senior officers yesterday.

With an aim to avoid water logging during heavy rains, BMC had started the pre-monsoon preparatory works especially cleaning drains much earlier this year. BMC started desilting of major nullahs last year on April 24 while this year it began on March 18.

A statement issued by the media advisor to the civic chief said, "All the leaves including weekends have been cancelled of deputy municipal Commissioners, assistant municipal Commissioners till further orders.

Moreover, they have been directed to intensify the monsoon preparatory works." The civic chief would also make surprise visits from May 26 onwards to inspect the preparatory works and concerned officers have been asked to complete the desilting work by May 31 to avoid water logging during monsoon.

In the wake of the desilting scam that surfaced last year, this year the BMC has decided to go public with the names of dumping grounds where silt will be deposited.

"Seventy six per cent of Mithi river desilting work has been completed, while 66 per cent of drainage desilting is over. Besides, we have so far done 35 per cent of minor nullah clean up work. Our team has fixed the target of completing the whole task by this month's end," Sanjay Deshmukh, Additional Municipal Commissioner of BMC had told reporters earlier.

Major drains in the city have collective length of 252 km and minor drains run up to 420 km. Minor and major nullahs take rain water to sea and can be a major reason for floods if not cleaned properly.

PTI