Nagpur: Noisy scenes prevailed for quite some time in the first general body meeting of Nagpur Zilla Parishad (ZP) post Diwali. Following a heated exchange of words between a rebellious ruling Congress party member Nana Kambhale and other ruling party members and office-bearers, led to the ruling party members demanding action against him. He also hurled the agenda of the meeting in the air and walked out of the meeting.
Kambhale is a senior member of the ruling Congress party, but he had rebelled during the election of ZP President. Since then, he sits in ZP House with the opposition BJP in every meeting and tries to corner ZP office-bearers of his party on various issues. During the meeting, on Friday, he sought details of funds received from the District Planning Committee (DPC), other heads, and the Cess Fund remaining unspent.
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Mukta Kokadde, ZP President, said that it was not possible to give the details instantly due to the extensive nature of the information sought. All the departments concerned will provide the information independently to him, she added. However, Kambhale was in a hostile mood. He stuck to the demand of all the information to be tabled in the House. BJP members including Atish Umre, Leader of Opposition, supported him.
Kambhale said that the Chief Accounts and Finance Officer (CAFO) had all the information and alleged that more than Rs 80 crore remained unspent. “If the funds could not be spent in two-third of the year, how will the funds be utilised in the remaining only four months of this financial year?” he asked.
In response, CAFO shared some information. As per that information, Rs 65.50 crore of DPC fund for the year 2021-22 was unspent. This included Rs 48.94 crore of Works Department, Rs 2.49 crore of Women and Child Welfare Department, Rs 7.68 crore of Irrigation Department, Rs 2.58 crore of Education Department, and Rs 1.82 crore of Water Supply Department. In the same financial year, Rs 24.95 crore received from the State and Central Governments had remained unspent.
As far as Cess Fund was concerned, the CAFO informed the House that Rs 3.32 crore of the General Administration Department had remained unspent. Details about other departments were sought from the heads of respective departments but it was yet to be received, the CAFO said. This could not satisfy Kambhale and he accused the ruling side of failure.
Kunda Raut, Vice-President of ZP, hit back and said that it was not the ZP budget meeting. She told Kambhale that the matter should have ended when the ZP President ruled that the respective departments would give him detailed information later. She said that Kambhale was a member of the Finance Committee and already had all the information. She accused him of ‘passing time’ by raising such issues in general body meetings.
This irked Kambhale and he accused those in power of ‘time pass’, and blamed the officials for funds remaining unspent. He also hurled the papers of the agenda of the meeting in the air and threw away the microphone, and walked out of the House, boycotting the proceedings of the meeting. The ruling party members disapproved of this, and sought action against his unruly behaviour. Kokadde, who was in the chair, ruled that such a resolution of action against Kambhale was passed. She asked the administration to send it to the Divisional Commissioner for further action.
Praveen Jodh, Chairman of Agriculture Committee, and Avantika Lekurwale, Chairperson of Women and Child Welfare Committee, were absent. B V Nemane, Additional CEO, represented ZP administration. NCP member Diya Multaikar was nominated to the Health Committee and Congress member Pinky Kaurati to the Woman and Child Welfare Committee of ZP. Their nomination to the vacant positions in these committees was unopposed.
