BMC plans statue relocation in heritage Corporation Hall to make room for councillors | Mumbai News
In order to tide over the space crunch inside the century old Corporation hall at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Mahayuti regime has proposed the relocation of nearly 12 statues and busts inside the hall to make sitting space for all the 227 elected and 10 nominated councillors in the BMC.
The rectangular corporation hall, which has been listed as a heritage structure by the state government is the epicentre of all the political and ceremonial proceedings of BMC. From presenting the annual budget to holding general body meetings where major resolutions pertaining to the civic body’s day to day decision making gets passed, everything is being held in this hall.
The hall was constructed back in 1893 when the civic body had only 64 municipal councillors, in the past 133 years while the strength of councillors had increased, the size of the hall remained the same.
On February 11, when the proceedings to elect Mumbai’s 78th Mayor was underway, as many as 26 elected municipal councillors didn’t have a place to sit inside the corporation hall.
Earlier in April, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator and leader of the house, Ganesh Khankar had told the BMC administration that a new corporation hall needs to be constructed with a 300 member seating capacity. The BJP led regime had proposed the plot of an erstwhile Gymkhana located at the Azad Maidam grounds, opposite to the civic headquarters. Khankar had proposed that the new corporation hall should replicate the new Parliament house in Delhi.
After the budget session ended in the first week of May, the civic assembly went for a month-long recess and is set to resume its operations from June 22. Meanwhile, Khankar has reiterated to officials to make additional space for the councillors.
A source said that the Khankar has proposed a structural altercation of the last two rows to make an additional seating arrangement.
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However, civic officials said that this won’t be possible on an immediate basis since it will require partial demolition and reconstruction of the existing structure.
“If additional seats are to be added in the last row, then we will have to bring down the existing partition wall. This cannot be done without seeking permission from the civic and state heritage cell, considering the hall is listed as a heritage property,” a civic official said.
As an alternative, the BJP had proposed relocation of as many as 12 statues and busts that are present inside the hall to make way for additional space. At present, there are statues of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Indira Gandhi and Chhatrapati Shivaji inside the hall, among others. These statues are located in multiple locations across the hall. The officials said that the current plan is to bring these statues into one single side.
“The Mahatma Gandhi statue is on the western side of the house, while the Shivaji Statue is in the east and the other remaining statues are on other corners. The idea is to bring all these statues and line them up on the eastern side to ensure that some space comes up on the other side of the hall,” the official said.
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Meanwhile speaking with the Indian Express, Khankar said, “I have told the administration to create a blueprint of a new corporation hall in the lines of a new parliament building. Mumbai is the financial capital of India and all the proceedings of the house are now broadcast live.
Therefore it is really embarrassing if people see that the elected representatives don’t have proper seating arrangements inside the hall,” Khankar said.
“Since the process of construction of a new parliament house is going to take time, I have instructed the administration to relocate the existing statues and make more seating space for the time being,” he added.
The hall is rectangular in shape and the seating arrangement is hexagonal in shape comprising a bar and benches. At the centre of the hall is the dias where the Mayor sits along with presiding officers. While at the right of the Mayor sits the ruling faction and on the left, sits the opposition.
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“At present, the hall can accommodate a maximum strength of 150-175 persons at a given time. Usually 20-30 councillors stay absent on an average during the day of the meetings. During the house proceedings, it is not just the councillors who are present in the hall, there are administrative officials along with ancillary staffers, members of the press and personal assistants to each councillor. So even if 50 per cent of the current strength of total elected representatives are present in the hall, it will still be difficult for everyone to sit inside comfortably,” an official told the Indian Express.
The rectangular hall is inspired by the architectural designs of the townhall located in Glasgow and Birmingham. The ceiling in the hall comprises moulded panels of Burma Teak wood covered in gold leaf, while the flooring is of Minton tiles. From the roof there hangs three chandeliers whose origin predates the original colonial era. There are several busts inside the hall representing communities in Mumbai with the initials CB (Corporation of Bombay) engraved on them.
Civic officials also maintained that an alternative plan could be merging few defunct offices that are present in the sixth floor of BMC’s annexe building and transforming them into a large hall. However, this proposal needs to be cleared by the administration first.
