07 September,2016 07:19 PM IST | | Laxman Singh
The 15-point rejoinder notice, to be issued to the Bhau Daji Lad museum, is about violations in an agreement with the BMC
The director of the museum, Tasneem Mehta, said they have provided every single detail requested by the civic body
Dissatisfied with the reply given by the trustees of the Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to send another notice to them over its alleged violations. The civic body has prepared a 15-point rejoinder notice (mid-day has a copy of it), which will be sent to it in a week.
Tasneem Mehta
The museum authority is under fire after a probe conducted by the civic body has revealed serious violations of the agreement signed between it and museum management, like no certification of artefacts, no records of day-to-day accounts, non-availability of inventory, missing audit reports and recruiting staff without following the due process.
The BMC had sent a notice to museum trustees in April and asked for a clarification over the issues pointed out in the probe. On April 20, director of the museum, Tasneem Mehta had replied to it, dismissing all the allegations and stated that the trust had followed all the norms. However, pointing out loopholes in the trust's reply the civic body has prepared another notice.
A senior civic official said, "The notice is ready and most likely it will be sent to trust next week. Few things are yet to be discussed with top officials and after that a finalised copy will be sent." Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta refused to divulge more details.
Elite class
The BMC was giving Rs 5 crore to the museum management annually, however, now it has been stopped. The corporators had alleged that the BMC owned museum has turned into an institution for the elite class with very little access to common citizens.
MNS corporator Sandip Deshpande and Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh had taken strong objection to the functioning of the management and raised several questions over the violations in the BMC's Standing Committee. Speaking to mid-day Tasneem Mehta rubbished all the issues raised by civic body and said, "We have provided every single detail requested by the civic body. Even after the controversy not a single person from BMC has done a physical investigation of the museum."
