The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Group Leaders (GL) meeting held on Monday cleared three major decisions, mainly naming the proposed Mumbai coastal road after ChhatrapatiShivajiMaharaj. The councillors agreed to hand over 35 BMC schools to a Non-Governmental Organisation and have also proposed to give land to Akshay Patra’s organisation which provides free mid-day meal to 5, 000 BMC schools.
Though the first proposal was approved without any opposition, the second proposal was strongly opposed by the Congress and Maharashtra NavnirmanSena of handing over 35 Marathi municipal schools to an NGO. These schools were shut due to lack of infrastructure and poor teaching standards so as to convert these 35 Marathi BMC schools into English medium.
The Congress party objected. Ravi Raja, the Leader of Opposition (LOP) said, “The Shiv Sena and the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) want to convert the BMC schools into private. However, we are against privatisation as the BMC has shown it has separate education budget of Rs 2,300 crore.”
