Mumbai civic body’s ‘paperless’ plan remains on paper

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) eco-friendly plan to phase out the use of paper in day-to-day affairs has remained only on paper for three years because of the administration’s casual approach.

The civic body had given laptops to its 227 corporators to ensure paperless governance. The idea was that they would receive various official notices, invitations and meeting agendas via the internet.

However, over the past three years, the civic administration has not procured the software required for uploading agendas onto the corporators’ laptops. In fact, some corporators use the laptops more for personal use than for official purposes.

Ashish Shelar, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s group leader in the BMC, said he has not received a single email till date containing the agenda of a meeting and that his laptop is lying unused in his office. Vinod Shekhar, Congress corporator from Colaba, also said he has been waiting in vain to receive agenda on his laptop.

Subodhkumar, municipal commissioner, recently assured in an all-party meeting of group leaders that he will look into the matter and evaluate it.