Congress demands rectification of road named after ex-Israeli prez

The Congress on Monday wrote to municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal demanding the civic administration to rectify the name of the junction renamed after former Israeli president Shimon Pares.

On February 13, The Freepress Journal had reported that

BMC has named a junction between Kala Ghoda Chowk and Sai Baba Marg, in south Mumbai's A-ward after the former Israeli president. The proposition of renaming the junction was tabled for the first time in 2018, which was then objected to by the BMC Leader of Opposition (LoP) and senior Congress corporator - Ravi Raja, and group leader of Samajwadi Party in BMC - Rais Shaikh.

“The policy of BMC states that any public place should only be renamed after those who have made significant contributions behind the socio-economic development of Maharashtra,” Raja told FPJ.

“The renaming has been done by not following these policies and the management needs to immediately rectify it,” Raja added. The LoP has also demanded a probe on the authorisation of the proposal.

As per the civic body, only the local corporator of the ward has the official right to propose a name for any junction or road. However local Shiv Sena corporator of this ward - Sujata Sanap stated, she hasn't moved any proposition regarding the naming of the Chowk.

“As per my knowledge, the proposal had come from the office of former municipal commissioner - Praveen Pardeshi,” said Sanap.

Rais Shaikh, who last week had written to the state CM addressing this issue on Monday stated, that he will take down the matter into the legislative assembly. Meanwhile, senior officials of the civic body stated, the renaming has happened by following the protocols of BMC.

“The policy also states that the municipal commissioner has the authority to initiate renaming of junctions and public places, this has also been done by keeping the commissioner's office under confidence,” said an official.