A BMC school in Kurla has become the battleground for a petty political tussle. Politicians from the BJP and Congress conducted a bhoomipujan ceremony on different days for the redevelopment of the Gaibanshah Urdu and Marathi Municipal School in Kurla
Corporator Harish Bhandirge and BJP MP Poonam Mahajan at the school in December; (right) Congress MLA Naseem Khan at the school yesterday
ADVERTISEMENT
A BMC school in Kurla has become the battleground for a petty political tussle. Politicians from the BJP and Congress conducted a bhoomipujan ceremony on different days for the redevelopment of the Gaibanshah Urdu and Marathi Municipal School in Kurla.
On Thursday morning, Congress MLA Naseem Khan went ahead with another bhoomipujan ceremony, which is already under construction. But just a month ago, on December 3, BJP MP Poonam Mahajan had already inaugurated the school in the presence of corporator Harish Bhandirge.
Speaking to mid-day, Khan alleged that before the upcoming BMC elections, BJP is trying to take credit for their hard work. He said, “In 2013, I along with the previous local corporator and civic officials proposed a redevelopment project for 10 civic schools and now, when the proposal has been passed, the newly-appointed corporator has inaugurated it.”
“We conducted the bhoomipujan after we received a notice from BMC. Immediately after that, the reconstruction work of the school started. Now if an MLA is coming in the middle of the work and performing the bhoomipujan, then it is an illegal act,” said Bhandirge.
Local ward officer Ajitkumar Ambi, who was not present at both the inaugurations said, “In the past few months, we have received several complaints from the local corporators against MLA Naseem Khan for illegally conducting inauguration ceremony of many roads in the local ward. However, in this case [BJP’s December bhoomipujan] a local corporator was present, which validates the inauguration.”