The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has cancelled the allotment of five plots reserved for civic schools to private players under its public-private partnership policy, after a high-level committee recommended that the allotments be scrapped.
BMC commissioner Ashwini Bhide told the Times of India that the civic body had accepted the report of the committee formed to examine the allotments. The panel was headed by joint municipal commissioner Sanjog Kabre.
The cancellation follows objections from political parties over the way the policy was framed and implemented. Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam had written to Bhide and mayor Ritu Tawde four months ago, seeking cancellation of the allotments. He argued that the policy had been framed “in haste” during the previous administrator’s rule, when the BMC general body was not in place and elected representatives had not been adequately consulted.
The Congress supported the demand for a review and cancellation. The subsequent committee inquiry provided the administrative basis for the BMC’s decision to reverse the five allotments.
The plots were reserved for civic schools and had been offered to private players through the BMC’s PPP policy. The available details do not identify the five locations, the private entities involved, the terms of the allotments or whether any construction or operational work had begun on the sites.
The decision places the BMC’s handling of public land for school infrastructure under renewed scrutiny. It also highlights the institutional question of how major civic policies are framed when an elected general body is not functioning. Satam said the policy required a broader review rather than only the cancellation of the five allotments.
He has called for the appointment of a committee to comprehensively examine the PPP policy, followed by detailed discussion in the civic House. He further sought the formulation and implementation of a policy that is “balanced and inclusive”.
The BMC’s acceptance of the probe committee’s recommendation establishes the immediate corrective action on the five plots. Further changes to the wider PPP policy will depend on whether the civic body appoints the proposed review committee and places the matter before the civic House.
