MUMBAI: At its general body meeting on Friday, the BMC House formally sanctioned a Rs 250-crore mayor’s development fund — the highest ever allocation in the history of the civic body. It would earlier be in the range of Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore.
Officials said the increase in the mayor’s discretionary fund was made by reallocating funds from key departments, including solid waste management, road concreting and bridges departments. The fund will be distributed to corporators based on the mayor’s recommendations.
Initially, all corporators were allotted around Rs 2.25 crore each, but certain wards reportedly received significantly higher allocations ranging between Rs 5 crore and Rs 20 crore, leading to protests from opposition members and internal dissent within the ruling alliance. Following the row, the allocations were revised, with Rs 54 crore being cut from the standing committee’s development fund and redirected to civic welfare schemes, including the sanitation workers’ housing and welfare initiative. Officials said Rs 15 crore each was reduced from Shinde’s and Khankar’s allocations as part of the restructuring exercise.