Of 15 axed corporators,14 replaced; odd ward out is no 86

After the last BMC elections,15 corporators had been disqualified for having produced fake caste certificates.

After the last BMC elections,15 corporators had been disqualified for having produced fake caste certificates. Three years on,the wards of 14 of those leaders have new corporators,who had either finished second in the 2007 BMC elections,or won by-elections subsequent to the disqualifications.

The ward that remains without a corporator is number 86 in Santacruz East. Shiv Senas Vishwanath Mahadeshwar,disqualified,appealed in High Court that ruled in his favour,before the matter became the subject of litigation again. Waiting for a final judgment,Mahadeshwar says civic services in his area have been suffering as he cannot address the problems.

The 15 disqualified corporators comprise eight of the Shiv Sena,two of the Samajwadi Party,one each of the Congress,the NCP,the MNS and the BJP,and one Independent.

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Of the 14 replaced,the last was the Shiv Senas Pravin Devhare,in Shivaji Park. Disqualified after the BMC scrutiny in 2007,he had moved the Bombay High Court,which ruled against him last week. He has been replaced by MNS leader Prakash Patankar,second to him in the 2007 elections.

Indeed,all 15 corporators had gone to court,asking for a stay order on a BMC scrutiny committees findings. Some of them had moved the court of small causes; others had approached the Bombay High Court directly. While the cases were in court,the corporators did not have the right to attend the BMCs house and general body meetings,and had no voting rights.

After Mahadeshwars election,his Congress opponent Suryavansh Thakur had filed a case against him in the court of small causes alleging inconsistency in his caste certificate.

In my certificate,I had given my catse as Vaishya. Thakur claimed that the caste scheduled under the OBC list is called Vaishyavani, said Mahadeshwar,principal of the Shambhaji Raje High School and Junior College in Santacruz.

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The state backward classes commission concluded that Vaishya and Vaishyavani meant the same thing in the Koli language. The High Court ruled in my favour. But Thakur then filed another case in the High Court against the findings of the commission. The case is still being heard, he said.

In the absence of a corporator,his ward,largely dominated by slums at Hanuman Thekdi,Golibar,Dauri Nagar,Chaitanya Nagar and Shivaji Nagar,has been suffering from improper sewage disposal,a water scarcity and bad roads,he said. People come to me with their problems but since I cannot attend house meetings,I cannot address their problems directly, said Mahadeshwar.

The break-up
15 disqualified corporators comprise 8 of the Shiv Sena,2 of the Samajwadi Party,1 each of the Congress,the NCP,the MNS and the BJP,and 1 Independent

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