Marathon: corporators differ on decision to charge organiser

The decision to charge Procam International for the works carried out by BMC during the marathon last year was deferred by the standing committee members on Wednesday owing to differences between the corporators.

The decision to charge Procam International for the works carried out by BMC during the marathon last year was deferred by the standing committee members on Wednesday owing to differences between the corporators.

A letter by the state government had asked the BMC to waive off the licence fee and amount spent on road repair and renovation works. The BMC had spent Rs1.3 crore last year to spruce up the city before the marathon organised by the Procam International. The civic administration is responsible for making all the arrangementspainting and cleaning of roads and dividers on the marathon route,keeping the way hurdle-free,setting up disaster management chowkies,toilets and solid waste management during the event. It also charges license fee for advertisement hoardings put up during the event.

BJP corporator Ashish Shelar said that the BMC should get a share of the profit made by the firm. We will ask the firm to produce their accounts balance sheet and if we observe that they are making a profit then we will ask them to share their profits with us so that the expenses incurred by the BMC are reimbursed, Shelar said.

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Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu said that the event has the backing of many private companies. It is an event on the international level with many sponsors. When the civic body is facing such a financial crisis it is only fair to ask the marathon organisers to pay for the expenses incurred by the civic body, said Prabhu.

However,Congress corporator Sameer Desai maintained that the work done by the BMC before and after the marathon is obligatory on its part. Maintaining roads is BMCs duty for which there is a department with budgetary allocation that comes out of the tax payers money. Why should we charge the firm if we are doing our own job? said Desai. His view was echoed by NCP leader Niyaz Vanu.

Additional Municipal Commissioner R A Rajeev said that the firm will be asked to pay before the event this year. Last year they did not pay because we did not inform them ahead of the event. This year we will ask them to pay for the BMCs services before the event. Advertisement fee will also be charged in advance, Rajeev said.

Meanwhile,the corporators have demanded Municipal Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriyas opinion on the same before taking the final decision.

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