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A municipal commissioner and a gentleman

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Thane

On Sunday, December 13, Thane city witnessed an unusual scene. Thousands of locals came out on the streets with lighted candles. No, it was not a delayed Easter celebration nor was it any festive occasion. The people had flowed out on to the roads to show solidarity for their municipal commissioner, T S Chandrashekhar, who was sacked by the Thane corporators at an extraordinary general body meeting only the previous day.

The response was so tremendous that white-collared executives, lawyers and doctors took to the streets, for the first time in the township's history in the 50 years of independence, to protest the sacking.

Says Professor Y K Thombre, vice-principal, Siddarth College and a Thane resident, "Ever since Chandrashekhar came to Thane 18 months ago, he has changed the face of the city. And these elected corporators are sacking him because he is an honest man."

One-and-a-half years ago, when Chandrashekhar was transferred from Ratnagiri, his main agenda was to widen the roads and supply basic amenities to Thaneites. The first thing he did was to clear the illegal slums and hawkers.

Within a short span of time, he involved Thaneites in his project, shifted thousands of slum-dwellers and hawkers to alternative sites and beautified the roads, thus earning the gratitude of a populace used to civic apathy. And, so far as he did not touch them, he was backed all the way by the municipal councillors too.

Trouble began for Chandrashekhar soon after he started targeting illegal buildings and restaurants -- owned by councillors from various parties.

The dispute between the elected representatives and the municipal commissioner reached a peak and one day Chandrashekhar came out in anger and stated that nearly 40 of the city's 95 councillors were involved in illegal constructions and if the next council meeting will have to be held in a jail.

The councillors, who had hitherto watched Chandrashekhar's growing clout with alarm, now closed ranks and brought forward a no-confidence motion against him. At a meeting held on December 12, 80 councillors, from both the Congress and the Shiv Sena voted for his ouster, while 15 of the Bharatiya Janata Party voted in favour of the commissioner.

Says Prem Singh Rajput, mayor of Thane who belongs to the Sena, "The commissioner cannot make statement that councillors are corrupt. He must have some proof before making such allegations. So we all decided to sack him."

Agreeing with this, leader of the Opposition Manoj Shinde of the Congress said, "We are elected representatives and have certain status in society. We called in the commissioner to prove his statement but he never attended the meeting and instead sent his deputies. So all the party members decided to sack him."

Interestingly, the BJP has stated that it would not oppose the commissioner since they are a party of principles. Since its election plank was fighting corruption, its leaders said they cannot go back on their words even if their alliance partner, the Sena, was in favour of sacking the commissioner.

Says Veena Narayan Bhatia, leader of the BJP in Thane Municipal Corporation, "I have not heard the commissioner's remark against the councillors, nor have any of my party men. So why should we vote against him?"

According to her, the friction between the bureaucracy and the councillors should not stop the people's work. "If the people want the commissioner then there is no need for any party to vote against him," she adds.

However, Shinde feels otherwise. "Only 10,000 people took to the streets in support of the commissioner, out of a population of 1.5 million. If I were to call my supporters and party workers to come out against the commissioner, surely we will be in lakhs."

Agreeing with this, Rajput says widening roads is not the only priority. The commissioner in fact, has never paid attention to water shortage and sewage problem plaguing Thane. "I have personally sent so many files clearing water supply in many localities. But the commissioner has never approved them. So, what is the point of having good roads when you cannot provide basic amenities to the people?"

Interestingly, the Janata Dal's four members also voted against the commissioner, defying the party chief's directive, following which Dashrath Patil resigned as party leader since he said his men did not believe in principles anymore

Says Dal leader Ashraf Moolani, "We voted against the commissioner because he insulted the councillors and we seriously believe that nobody has the right to insult councillors until they have some proof."

Says Bhai Tilve, president, Viju Natekar Autorickshaw and Taxi Union which has 35,000 rickshaws and 100 taxis affiliated to it, "For the fist time in my 40 years of union life, people have praised me for calling a strike. In fact, people have donated me nearly Rs 30,000 as compensation for loss in earnings our men had to suffer."

According to Tilve, the problem really began when the commissioner went on to demolish bungalows in Yeoor hill (in Thane district). These bungalows belonged to influential people and the builder lobby, which had a strong presence in Thane.

Though it is widely believed that one of the bungalows was owned by Uddhav Thackeray, son of the Sena chief, Chandrashekhar himself denied this.

The situation went out of hand as the dispute between the people and councillors virtually threatened to bring the city to a standstill, forcing Thackeray to intervene. After discussions with his party councillors and the municipal commissioner in a south Bombay hotel, he ordered his party men to withdraw the sack order.

"After Balasaheb ordered us to withdraw our decision, we obeyed his decision as obedient soldiers. But hope that in the future this commissioner does not create more problems for us," says Rajput.

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