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BMC demands Rs 4.53 crore dues from Maharashtra election body

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Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked the state election dept to pay Rs 4.53 crore for having used the civic body's vehicles and premises during the Lok Sabha polls this year and previous years. The solid waste management dept of the civic body has written to city and suburban collectors demanding that dues in this regard be cleared immediately.

Is the demand justified?
Civic officials have cited section 161 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 in demanding the compensation. As per it, the authority conducting an election should pay compensation for expenditure incurred by the civic body in the election.

How much money is due to BMC?
As per data, the civic body has to get Rs14.74 lakh from western suburbs for the LS elections this year. From the city area, it has to get Rs 69.69 lakh for 2014 LS polls and Rs 2.46 crore for 2009 general elections. From eastern suburbs, the amount due is Rs1.11 crore (till 2009). And Rs11.95 lakh is due from this year's general elections.

Why should money be paid to BMC?
"We have written to the state election dept demanding money for having used our resources used during elections. We are yet to hear from them," said additional municipal commissioner Mohan Adtani.
Collector denies getting letter
Suburban collector Shekhar Channe, however, denied receiving any letter from BMC. "We haven't received any letter from the civic body demanding compensation. BMC provides vehicles, but election dept takes care of diesel and other expenses."
Prakash Patil said: "They may be spending on diesel. But BMC pays drivers and for maintenance of the vehicles."

Has BMC been approached for assembly polls?
Adtani said the election dept had approached BMC seeking 100 vehicles for carrying out work related to assembly elections scheduled for Oct 15.
Another senior civic official said BMC would be able to provide only 50 vehicles.
Prakash Patil, deputy municipal commissioner, said for the 2014 LS polls, civic body had provided more than 60 vehicles. "We send them one or two reminders (for the dues) too in a month, but haven't received any response so far," Patil said.

What role do civic body, staff play?
The election dept uses several civic premises to conduct their work. In addition to this, thousands of civic staff are deployed for preparing electoral rolls and other poll-related works.
There are around 10,000 polling stations across the city and between 6,000 to 7,000 civic officials are required for poll-related work, including counting of votes.

Have BMC officials started work for Oct polls?
Yes. They are already on the job, 2,257 of them.

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