This story is from June 28, 2020

Congress, BJP in social media war over Tukaram Mundhe’s functioning

Congress, BJP in social media war over Tukaram Mundhe’s functioning
NAGPUR: The unity among all political parties, especially BJP and Congress, against the “autocratic style of functioning” by municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe seems to be developing cracks now. The chasm has widened so much that both leading parties have openly started talking either in favour of or against the civic body chief on various social media sites.
While Congress corporators, including Praful Gudadhe, Kamlesh Chowdhary, say the senior officer like Mundhe should not be targeted, BJP corporators charge Mundhe of violating service manual.

“Targeting an officer for doing his duty, exposing irregularities and preventing wrongdoings is wrong,” Chowdhary said while sharing his video released on a social media site. Mundhe has been made an accused of “autocratic style of functioning” even though his achievement in strengthening five NMC-run hospitals by increasing bed capacity to 450 in just 45 days has earned him support from citizens.
Gudadhe’s social media message said, “A Congress corporator had tabled an adjournment motion in the recent NMC general body meeting in connection with alleged lapses in notifying or creating facilities in Covid containment zones. But, the BJP used the motion to its advantage and tried to paint a picture that the ongoing struggle between the civic chief and the mayor was not a struggle between the two but an all-party struggle,” said Gudadhe.
Senior BJP corporator Dayashankar Tiwari is also circulating his video “exposing” how Mundhe violated service manual and misused power vested in him as the civic chief.
Mayor Sandip Joshi was not available for comments but ruling party leader and former deputy mayor Sandip Jadhav said BJP always supported “honest, efficient, and upright officers” but it was opposed to “abuse of official powers to create problems for elected representatives and ill-treatment of corporators”. Jadhav, in an apparent reference to Mundhe’s popularity among citizens, said that “an official should not work like Robinhood just to gain popularity among people” .

Like Nagpur, Mundhe also faced similar opposition from corporators when he was the Navi Mumbai commissioner. Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation had passed no confidence motion against Mundhe in its general body meeting in 2015-16. All corporators from various political parties, except the BJP, had backed the motion.
Jadhav said Mundhe didn’t give time to the elected representatives, always disrespected them and took unilateral decisions without informing them.
Aam Adami Party activists in the city wondered about the BJP’s “double standards”. In 2016, the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis himself felicitated Mundhe with “best collector”award for all round performance in 2015-16.
"Credibility of the political class is the real issue, not Mundhe. When bureaucracy works efficiently, people start to trust administration instead of their elected representatives. Public representatives are just seeking ego satisfaction instead of focusing on real issues,” AAP Vidarbha convener Devendra Wankhede added.
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