BJP vetoes civic study tour to Andaman, team to take U-turn and visit Chandigarh

MUMBAI: The BMC’s civic works committee, which had intended to visit Andaman Islands to study their drainage system, will now head to Chandigarh instead. The Andaman plan was cancelled at the last minute after BJP members in the committee objected to it.
BJP members said Mumbai will learn little from Andaman and added such a tour should be avoided in view of the BMC’s depleting financial collections.
The committee led by Shiv Sena amended its study tour proposal at Thursday’s civic works meeting in favour of Chandigarh. Sena members said BJP had decided against the tour long back following their group leader’s instructions, and no one opposed the proposal.
There are different committees in the BMC, including a works committee that comprises corporators from different political parties proportionate to their party’s strength. They plan national and international study tours for members on public expense, to study existing infrastructure in other cities and countries for implementation in Mumbai. It is alleged in the past, they rarely submitted detailed reports about their visits.
BJP’s Snehal Shah said, “We opposed the tour proposal as there is nothing for us to learn from Andaman’s drainage system. The last study tour was to Shillong but the members did not inform us what they learned there.”
Makrand Narvekar, another BJP corporator, said, “We asked the committee to record our opposition to the visit, following which the tour location was changed. Reports indicate that the BMC’s financial collections are very poor. Then why do we need such a study tour?”
Senior Sena corporator Shraddha Jadhav said civic officials visit various places to learn new things. She said, “Some members were not comfortable with Andaman so I suggested Chandigarh and all agreed to it. Chandigarh is a planned city and has various good things for us to learn for implementation in the city.”
Arundhati Dudwadkar, another Sena corporator, said, “BJP had decided to not join the tour because of instructions from their group leader.”