‘This cabin will save BMC officials’ time’

Mangal Prabhat Lodha (left) in the office at the BMC HQ on Friday

Even as the Opposition has slammed the civic administrator and the state government over the decision to give the guardian minister an office in the BMC HQ, and Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray gave him an ultimatum to vacate it, Mangal Prabhat Lodha took charge of it on Friday.

Lodha said the office will be used during disaster situations for coordination between agencies and citizens. Talking to the media on Friday, Lodha replied to Thackeray, "We don't run the government from social media or while sitting on the coast. We work with people. Around 15,000 complaints are received through the Janta Darbar and 3,700 of the issues were solved. We need to conduct meetings with BMC officials for various issues and they would visit Mantralaya. Now I will hold meetings in the cabin at the BMC head office. It will save them time."

Thackeray had asked Lodha to vacate the office immediately. "I tell you today, if this does not stop in the next 24 hours, then Mumbaikars will express their anger someday. I don't know who to blame then," he said at the Vidhan Bhavan on Friday.

According to Thackeray, on Thursday, a former BJP corporator had occupied the cabin instead of the two guardian ministers. "Recently the party offices were forced to close. Now, these dictatorial people have encroached them and are trying to enforce dictatorship," he said. Earlier he tweeted, "Now encroachments have moved into @mybmc HQ, hoping to probably name it "Casa BMC" or something like a builder's advert."

"This is a shameless attack on the BMC's independence as a local self government. If this is allowed, each of us as Mumbai MLAs should be given a cabin there, and Mayors be given a cabin in Mantralaya. Why does the builder contractor khoke sarkar want an office illegally in the BMC they've been looting for a year, in absence of elected representatives?" tweeted the Worli MLA.

Civic administrator I S Chahal claimed that Lodha had given him a letter seeking the office 15 days before. "Lodha said that he wants an office in BMC HQ to solve the issues of citizens instead of the Collectorate. Therefore we gave him this office to him. If Guardian Minister (city) Deepak Kesarkar demands an office, we will provide it to him as well," said Chahal.