Mumbai: High drama was witnessed in the BMC general body on Thursday after the BJP-led house sought to accord urgent status to a proposal to widen a road in Ghatkopar (West), triggering a confrontation over voting procedure that ended with the opposition staging a walkout.The urgent proposal pertained to revising the regular road line of Khot Lane in Ghatkopar (West) from 6 metres to 9 metres under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, and the Development Control and Promotion Regulations, 2034. The proposal covers multiple land parcels in Ghatkopar-Kirol village.Before the proposal could be taken up, however, opposition members demanded a division of votes, arguing that under the rules, an urgent business proposal requires approval by a two-thirds majority before it can be discussed.The opposition claimed the BJP-led Mahayuti did not have the required numbers, leading to a prolonged standoff. After consultations with civic officials and ruling alliance leaders, Mayor Ritu Tawde announced that the proposal would instead be placed before a special meeting on a later date and proceeded to the next agenda item — a discussion on the inquiry report into the fatal Chembur tree-fall incident.The move lead to protests from corporators of Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, Samajwadi Party, AIMIM and MNS, who accused the Mayor of sidestepping a vote. Leader of Opposition Kishori Pednekar, Congress leader Ashraf Azmi, MNS leader Yashwant Killedar and other opposition members repeatedly demanded that a poll be conducted before the House moved on.As opposition members raised slogans of “Take the poll, take the poll,” BJP corporators countered with chants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya,” reducing the House to chaos. During the impasse, the Mayor, officials from the Municipal Secretary’s Department, Leader of the House Ganesh Khankar and Standing Committee chairman Prabhakar Shinde held discussions on the way forward.Refusing to conduct a division of votes, the Mayor reiterated that the proposal would be brought before a special meeting. The announcement prompted the opposition to walk out of the House. The protesting corporators later demonstrated outside the BMC headquarters, raising slogans against the Mayor and the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) ruling alliance.The opposition said it had demanded that the inquiry report into the incident be taken up at the start of the meeting. They alleged that the inquiry committee had effectively given a clean chit to the contractor, the Gardens Department, engineers and consultants, while recommending only a Rs 7 lakh penalty on the contractor and consultant. The opposition accused the ruling alliance of prioritising administrative and financial proposals over a discussion on the fatal incident.
