Mumbai municipal corporation poll on Feb 16

Elections to 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Pune, would be held on February 16, the state Election Commission announced in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Elections to 27 zilla parishads in the state would be held on February 7, State Election Commissioner Neela Satyanarayan told the media in Mumbai. The code of conduct has come into effect from Tuesday, she added.

In Mumbai and nine other civic corporations, polling will be held on Thursday, a working day, while counting would be held the next day, on February 17. Polls will also be held for Ulhasnagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Amravati, Akola and Nagpur civic bodies. Counting of votes for the zilla parishad polls would be held on February 8, she said.

"The poll schedule has been made in such a way as not to impact the 10th and 12th class board examinations. The process would be completed before the exams begin," she said. The exams are slated between February 19 and March 29 and it was not right to disturb the students, she said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had said recently that the examinations would not be postponed due to the zilla parishad and municipal corporation elections.

Meanwhile, with a clear eye on the Mumbai elections, the Congress-led government yesterday made a few city-centric announcements, including an ambitious initiative to re-develop the JJ Hospital, along the lines of New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The project, involving re-development of the state-run JJ Hospital will involve a cost of Rs 629 crore.

In a major relief to slum dwellers residing in hutments prior to 1995, the state government also decided to make the current residents eligible for rehabilitation under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority schemes. The decision will help slum-dwellers safeguarding their right of rehabilitation, even though, they have moved in after the cut-off date. The state cabinet has approved the amendment in the Development Control Rules to offer protection to the occupants of the hutments.

The decision has given a major impetus to expedite the implementation of the Rs 9,000 crore redevelopment of sector 5 of Dharavi slum project and the rehabilitation of 80,000 slum families on the Mumbai airport land.