MNS' Prakash Darekar, highest fund-spending councillor

The Borivli MNS corporator, Prakash Darekar, has distinguished himself as the highest fund-spending public representative among city councillors.

Of the 227 representatives, 50, have spent over Rs 1 crore in the 2013-14 fiscal. Darekar had a budget of Rs 1.06 crore. Shiv Sena's nominated councillor, Avkash Jadhav, emerged the poorest spender, managing to spent only Rs 57.13 lakh of the total Rs 1.19 crore allocated to him.

Mayor Sunil Prabhu and standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale also figured in the Rs 1 crore-or-above league. As on the first week of February, Prabhu (Rs 1.007 crore) and Shewale (Rs 1.07 crore) spent almost 100 per cent of their funds (Rs 99.65 lakh and Rs 1.06 crore, respectively). Opposition leader Devendra Amberkar, who had a budget of around Rs 68.92 lakh, got works worth Rs 65.12 lakh done.

Corporators were allotted Rs 60 lakh to carry out developmental works in 2012-13 as well as 2013-14. The money that could not be spend in 2012-13, spilled over to this fiscal.

While a majority of the corporators, blamed the e-tendering process, introduced to curb monetary malpractices, for poor spending of funds, Darekar had an opposite view. "If you pursue civic officials to get works done, no system can prove to be a hurdle. I found e-tendering effective," Darekar said.

Jadhav, however, blamed civic officials' lethargy in issuing orders for works planned for poor spending on his part. "Since I am a nominated corporator and don't represent any ward, I can't carry out developmental works. But I can definitely spend funds in elected representative's ward. Accordingly, I planned works worth Rs 68 lakh this year in addition to the consumed fund shown by BMC. I had identified works, but civic officials did not cooperate," Jadhav said.

Besides the 227 elected representatives, there are five nominated councillors in BMC. Among them, MNS' Girish Dhanurkar was the top spender (Rs 1.04 crore out of Rs 1.06 crore).