PVA leader Chandrakant Chhajed prevailed on Mayor Vatsala Andekar forcing her not to accept the adjournment motion tabled by Congressman Shantilal Suratwala congratulating the civic chief over his successful tenure at the PMC.

In his motion, Suratwala had also urged the civic body to seek from the State Government a one-year extension to Jha so as to enable him to implement the multi-crore mega water and sewerage augmentation project.

Interestingly, the proposal seeking approval of the civic general body to the norms and policies to be incorporated while issuing tender sets to the shortlisted firms who are vying for the contract of the Rs 1059 crore project was on the agenda of today's meeting.

It may be noted here that the PMC standing committee had already approved this set of terms and policy guidelines drafted by Jha. Even the State cabinet had given a green signal to the project and agreed to issue a financial grant of 23.33 per cent to the multi-crore project.

The civic chief who was hopeful that the civic body would approve the project proposal at the meeting was stunned when he was informed that the PVA members were against tabling of the proposal itself. Jha who was in his office rushed to the meeting and requested the Mayor to take the proposal for discussion.

``Please take the proposal for discussion today. If there are any objections to certain norms set by the administration those can be sorted out. The State cabinet had given a green signal to the project and the tender sets are to be issued on April 28,'' he informed the Mayor.

However, Chhajed ordered the Mayor not to allow discussions on the proposal at the meeting saying ``Satra numbarcha vishay gheou naka'' (do not allow discussion on the proposal number 17).

The Congress corporators including Suratwala, Nitin Jagtap, Sanjay Balgude and Vilas Wadekar rushed to the dias of mayor demanding that the proposal be discussed. When the Mayor refused, they urged her that if not today then the proposal be discussed on April 26, considering that the tenders sets were to be issued to the shortlisted firms on April 28.

They tabled an adjournment motion congratulating Jha and demanding that the adjourned meeting be held on April 26.

Chhajed, however, asked mayor not to accept the motion. He instead tabled a motion adjourning today's meeting till May 26, thus ensuring that discussions over the proposal were postponed till next month, when Jha would not be the civic chief. The Mayor accepted the motion tabled by Chhajed, notwithstanding the protest from the Congressmen.