Sena, BJP MLAs at war over Rs 5 cr govt funds

The relationship between the BJP and its former ally Shiv Sena seems to be going from bad to worse in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation.

In continuance with the round of exchanging tirades, Sena legislator Pratap Sarnaik has now accused his BJP counterpart of hatching an evil plan to divert his Local Area Development (LAD) funds amounting Rs 5 crore to his own constituency. Sarnaik and Mehta represent their parties in the Ovala-Majiawada and Mira Bhayandar assembly segments respectively.

Sarnaik alleged that Mehta took help of the Mayor to illegally divert the funds meant for his constituency and after the intervention of state’s urban development department, the district authorities have issued directions to rectify the deliberate blunder.

“A person should not stoop so low, there should be at least some ethics in politics,” he said.

Refuting the allegations as baseless, BJP legislator Narendra Mehta said, “First of all it is a pity that a two-time MLA is unaware of legislative dynamics and is clearly playing cheap politics to pump funds in works which will fulfil his own selfish motives in Chena village. Secondly, a major chunk of funds mooted by none other than Sena corporators are to be utilised for his own constituency. My thrust is on enhancing infrastructure as mandated by the government while allotting LAD funds.”

The state governments LAD scheme enables each legislator to undertake small developmental works and creating community assets in their respective constituency through the allocated funds every year.