MUMBAI: Ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls, the Maharashtra government has cleared the proposal of the Shiv Sena-run civic body for giving double increment to the employees of the civic body who are graduates in Marathi.
The BMC wants to promote Marathi at the workplace. The urban development ministry of Eknath Shinde approved this decision recently to woo the Marathi voters ahead of the BMC elections. In BMC, more than one lakh people are engaged in various departments.
The Corporation will go polls in February next year. In 2017, the BJP gave a close fight to the Sena which managed to retain power, even though it failed to win a simple majority in the house of 227 In 2011, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had tabled a proposal to give double increments to the civic employees who cleared their post-graduation in Marathi literature. The then BMC commissioner, Jairaj Pathak, had passed the proposal that aimed to make the civic body’s functioning ‘100% Marathi’.
However, with the proposed implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission putting a strain on the civic body’s resources, the BMC had no option but to scrap Pathak’s plan. The civic body had to roll back its decision in 2012 to award double increments to postgraduates in Marathi. The withdrawal of these special pay-hikes affected over 1,000 employees who had enrolled in correspondence courses to avail of the special offer.
After the announcement of the scheme, all the engineers, doctors and fourth-class employees had also enrolled themselves for post-graduation in Marathi literature. The double increment decision was halted again in 2018. However, it has again been proposed ahead of the BMC polls in 2022.
Resource crunch
The civic body had to roll back its decision in 2012 to award double increments. The withdrawal of these hikes had affected over 1,000 employees