On Thursday Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation gave a shock to the city’s first citizen, mayor Shraddha Jadhav, when it seized decoration material which was stored at a civic school at Parel.

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The material is owned by Shridhar Jadhav, the mayor’s husband and the school was given to the Mukund (Anna) Jadhav Shaikshanik Trust, run by mayor Shraddha Jadhav’s family.

The school hadn’t been functioning as an educational institute for over a decade now. Hence the BMC has given it to the trust on rental basis to run educational activities.

The trust, meant to run the school, was using the premises to store material belonging to Manohar Decorators, run by Shridhar Jadhav.

The BMC has already given a notice to the firm last year to vacate the premises. But nothing happened. On Thursday, the BMC initiated action against the firm and seized the materials.

The issue came to light when the education department was reviewing its empty school buildings. The file has been sent to top officers for review as it involves an important public figure.

The school was handed over to Mukund (Anna) Jadhav Shaikshanik Trust in 1997-98 for pre-primary and higher classes in Marathi and English medium. But the educational activities did not continue for long and the school turned into a dump yard within a few months and was being used to store chairs, tables and the decoration material used for parties and weddings. The trust is paying a nominal rent in lieu of such a big space.

None of the civic officials are willing to speak on the issue.

Harshad Kale, assistant commissionerrr of ‘F’ south ward and chief education officer, Abasaheb Jadhav are passing the ball to each other, saying it was not done by their department. Bharatat Kumar Pandey, education officer of ‘F’ south ward confirmed the action, but refused to give details.