Mumbai: Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar lost his cool during a recent surprise follow-up visit to the civic library and saw it was as dusty as ever. The Mayor was upset because after a similar surprise visit last month to the BMC library he had ordered that the library and dusty book shelves be cleaned up.
Mr. Mahadeshwar had also asked the staff to index the books and make them available subject-wise for easy reference to the corporators. None of his orders had been followed.
The Mayor immediately called officials of the Municipal Secretary’s office for an explanation. “When we pay so much salary, why don’t we get the required services? Let people know that we now have a Mayor who reads books,” Mr. Mahadeshwar is believed to have told the staff sternly. The Mayor used to be a principal of Raje Sambhaji Vidyalaya and Junior College at Santacruz and has the reputation of being a book worm despite his political responsibilities.
Municipal secretary, Prakash Jekate, who also turned up at this impromptu lashing session, was later overheard explaining to others, “I did ask the staff to clean up the library. But, if they failed to clean it, what can I do about it?”
The mayor had also asked for indexing the books subject-wise for easy access. The library staff later explained that they were loaded with work of cutting and providing newspaper clippings to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. “We are six of us in the library, of whom three are on leave. Our full day goes in just cutting the newspaper clippings. And then there is construction work going on in the building which generates dust throughout the day,” a staffer explained.
The Mayor also asked the Shiv Sena corporators accompanying him if they knew of this library facility being available for them. The corporators admitted that they had never visited or even heard about this place. “I was not even aware that the BMC had such a facility,” admitted a corporator. The corporators also seemed clueless about house proceedings being available in library for their reference.
