The city's civic councilors avail of numerous facilities at the expense of the taxpayer. Some of them are asking for more, but the municipal commissioner will have none of it.
Last week, Sitaram Kunte, the civic chief, rejected a proposal seeking free medical services for corporators at private super-specialty hospitals.
The proposal was made in 2009 through a notice of motion by Manohar Chonkar, former Shiv Sena corporator. The submission stated the all serving and former councilors should be provided medical services at such private establishments like Lilavati, Sushrusha, Hinduja, Nanavati, Wockhardt, Jaslok and Bombay hospitals, even the Asian Heart Institute, free of cost.
Chonkar said the corporators toiled for citizens without caring for their health and so they should be given free services.
Last year, Kunte refused to consider the proposal, saying the demand did not come under his purview. Dissatisfied by his reply, members of the civic health committee asked the commissioner to reconsider the demand.
In his letter on February 11, 2014, stated that the BMC registers/re-registers nursing homes and hospitals within BMC-administered areas, but it could not regulate the rates charged by private hospitals. "Also, since it is a policy matter it will be appropriate if the state government decides on it," Kunte said.
Rohan Sawant, a resident of Andheri, reacted to the matter saying, "There is nothing new in what the corporators are demanding. They want everything for free, while people are left to pay for services which are supposed to be provided free to them."
The BMC has already provided corporators laptops, cell phones with phone bills paid up to Rs1200 as well as AC bus passes. The heads of various committees are also entitled to an allowance of Rs1,200 for tea served for their visitors.
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