Pay up or return laptops: BMC to 107 outgoing corporators

Less than 10 days before the new civic body is due to be formed by the recently elected councillors, 107 of the total 227 outgoing corporators are yet to return their official laptops to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The BMC had given laptops to all 227 corporators and some top officers at a cost of Rs 1.13 crore in 2009. The objective was to provide corporators online access to various proposals coming up for discussion in different committees of the civic body.

Among the corporators who are yet to return their laptops are Standing Committee members and Shiv Sena corporators Prabhakar Shinde and Mangesh Satamkar, BJP MLA Yogesh Sagar, MNS MLA Mangesh Sangle, NCP MLA Vidya Chavan, Akhil Bharatiya Sena corporators Vandana Gawli and Geeta Gawli, NCP corporator and Standing Committee member Mangesh Bansod, RPI (A)'s Babasaheb Bansode, Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh, among others.

Sangle said, "I am a corporator until the new civic body is formed and will return the laptop soon. In case I cannot return it, I will pay the amount sought by the BMC. There is a lot of data I need to save on another computer and this will take some days."

Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said, "Corporators who have not returned the laptops yet will be sent notices after the new civic body is formed. After that, they will have no right to keep the laptop with them. In case corporators who have been elected again refuse to part with the laptop or buy them from the BMC at the specified cost, they will not be given new laptops." Corporators who refused or were unable to return the laptops have been asked to pay Rs 24,275.

Those who have already paid up include Mayor and Shiv Sena corporator Shraddha Jadhav, Shiv Sena MLA Ravindra Waikar, Congress corporator Pravin Chheda, Congress leader of Opposition and MLA Rajhans Singh, BJP leader Ashish Shelar and Standing Committee member and citizen corporator Adolf D'Souza.

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