The Ambernath Municipal Council held its special meeting at the Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Theatre on Friday after leakage and recurring maintenance problems disrupted the council’s newly built administrative headquarters. The unusual venue shift was followed by a public dispute between Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena members during the meeting.
The council moved the meeting from its own assembly hall because the civic headquarters has reportedly developed extensive leakage during the monsoon. The building, inaugurated only two to three years ago, was constructed with two completed floors and provision for a council hall, while work on the remaining two floors was continuing, according to Loksatta’s report.
The leakage affected the municipal office and the main hall, prompting the administration to use the theatre to avoid disruption during the special meeting. The report said the building had faced other problems earlier, including sections of plaster of Paris falling from offices and the council hall, repeated failures of the public-address system and recurring faults in the air-conditioning system.
The Anand Dighe Theatre is generally used for plays and cultural programmes. Its use for a municipal council meeting marked the first reported occasion on which councillors and political leaders occupied the venue for an official civic proceeding instead of performers. The decision drew criticism from art-loving residents, who objected to the cultural facility being used for a politically contentious council session.
The meeting also exposed tensions within the ruling arrangement. Shiv Sena councillor Rajendra Walekar said action should be taken if officials were not following the municipal president’s orders. BJP councillors objected to the remark, leading to disruption and verbal exchanges between members of the two parties.
The disagreement came despite recent discussion that the two groups had reached a settlement. The confrontation during the special meeting suggested that differences between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena factions remained unresolved. The dispute focused attention on the council’s internal functioning at a meeting already moved because of problems in its own administrative building.
The report did not specify the total cost of the headquarters, the contractor responsible for the construction, the extent of the repairs required or the date by which the building and its council hall would be restored for official use. It also did not state whether an independent technical inspection or action against the contractor had been ordered.
