The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) general body on Thursday decided not to discuss the matter relating to the disqualification of 25 corporators allegedly involved in illegal constructions in any general body meetings in the future.
The legal advisor of the civic body, Ajay Suryavanshi, said the general body (GB) took this decision since the matter is pending before a court.
The matter of disqualification of 25 corporators is pending for the last four years. With just a few months remaining for the civic polls — it is slated for early next year — these corporators could take part in the polls, provided the court does not give any adverse verdict by then.
Of the 25 corporators, 22 are from the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), two from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one from the Shiv Sena. Many of these NCP corporators are heavyweights in the party's Pimpri-Chinchwad unit.
In 2008, the PCMC furnished information about these corporators allegedly involved in illegal constructions to a Thergaon-based resident, Sambhaji Barne, who had sought details on the issue under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Armed with the information, Barne demanded that the state government take action against them. The government instructed the municipal commissioner to take a call on the issue.
Under section 10 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act, 1949, any corporator of a municipal body who undertakes unauthorised constructions or encourages such constructions stands to be disqualified from membership of the civic body.
Although the proposal of disqualification of 25 corporators was first tabled in the general body in March 2008, no decision was taken for the next two years.
The state government recently ordered that action be taken at the earliest, and asked PCMC commissioner, Ashish Sharma, to make available all related documents to divisional commissioner Dilip Band, who decided to refer the matter to the court.
