Ex- corporators yet to return tablets

CBD BELAPUR: Even as Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation ( NMMC) is struggling to succeed in its plans to go paperless, former corporators are yet to return the tablets.

The tablets were issued to them during their tenure in the last house of the civic body.

The NMMC administration could suffer financial losses owing to this. During the 201015 tenure of NMMC, the then mayor Sagar Naik had proposed the idea of distributing tablets to corporators and officials.

Corporators and officials would get the agenda of the meetings on the tabs. A total of 122 people, including 89 corporators, were given tablets. A special application was developed to enable the corporators to read the agenda easily.

The administration had spent over Rs45 lakh on the project. However, the plan was not imple- mented. Meanwhile, civic elections were held in April last year.

It has been 11 months since the polls, but the former corporators have not returned the tablets.“The tablets have to be returned after the tenure ends. Some probably did not know to this and thought it was given to them for good,” said an NMMC official, requesting anonymity.

He said, “However, even the corporators who have been re-elected don’t seem to be using the tablets.”

Currently, of the previous body 49 corporators or their relatives are in the house. A total of 25 corporators have been reelected. The wives of 13 former corporators have been elected and husbands of nine former corporators have been elected. Two corporators are children of former corporators.

By the beginning of this week, 13 people had returned the tablets. Municipal commissioner Dinesh Waghmare said, “We are hopeful that all former corporators will return their tablets soon.”