Five corporator-turned-MLAs in city all geared up for a bigger playground

Mumbai : Being the mayor of Mumbai, Sunil Prabhu took stock of all the issues concerning the capital city, held meetings with government agencies and led delegations. He was also well aware of all the problems plaguing his own electorate back in Dindoshi, he said, but being a corporator, Prabhu was unable to address most as they were state government subjects.

After Sunday, Prabhu, who is now an MLA, plans to tackle these predicaments head on. Of Mumbai’s 36 MLAs, five are sitting corporators — Ameet Satam, Manisha Chaudhari and Tamil Selvan of the BJP, and Prabhu and Ashok Patil of the Shiv Sena. Tired of negotiating within the limits of their positions, some are now prioritising issues concerning state government departments such as urban development, housing and tourism.

“In Kurar for instance, there are many slums, but no slum redevelopment scheme has been undertaken there because the land is a ‘No Development Zone.’ The first thing I will try as an MLA is to push for a change in reservation for the plot and get rehabilitation schemes under way. There is also the issue of encroachment on the Sanjay Gandhi National Park plot that I can now directly address. I had written to various government departments to address these issues, but my attempts were in vain. Now, I have the right to take up these issues,” said Prabhu, a Shiv Sena leader who wrested the Dindoshi constituency from Congress’ Rajhans Singh.

Likewise, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Ameet Satam, who is now an MLA from Andheri West, has summarised a long list of tasks he has set for himself as part of ‘Smart Andheri.’ But, among the various issues of traffic, law and order and safety, Satam, who claimed the constituency from Congress’ Ashok Jadhav, is strongly pushing for the restoration of Gilbert Hill and transforming it into an attractive tourist destination from the drab, unkempt structure that it is today.

Gilbert Hill, a listed heritage structure, is a 61-metre tall monolithic column of black basalt rock and is said to be created out of molten lava that was squeezed out of the earth’s clefts during the Mesozoic era. However, it is at present flanked by haphazard construction and encroachments.

“The structure will collapse some day. The encroachment should be cleared, reckless construction should be stopped and the spot should be developed as a tourist destination. I had tried as a corporator. I wrote to the municipal commissioner but the letter kept doing the rounds between the corporation, Slum Rehabilitation Authority and urban development department,” said Satam, a management consultant who was once an assistant to senior BJP leader late Gopinath Munde. At the corporation level, he had lost in 2007 to Adolf D’Souza, the city’s first citizens’ candidate, before being elected to the civic body in 2012.