Bouncers hired for commissioners at the BMC as tiff with the opposition hits another low

In an instance of firsts, BMC Commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, has deployed bouncers outside the office of the Mumbai civic body.

As per reports, Chahal has appointed at least ten bouncers for himself and four others for additional commissioners in the municipality. This has, however, turned into a point of contention as the municipality already has security guards to offer adequate protection. The opposition has further questioned this initiative, stating that it reflected lack of faith on the part of Chahal on the BMC’s own security staff.

According to sources, these private bouncers belong to a company named Eagle. Since this happens to be the first time that private security guards are been deployed in the municipality, the question of funding with regards to their salaries has also been asked. 

Meanwhile, the opposition has also alleged corruption in the health care centres, stating that the prices of PPE kits, hand gloves, body bags have been exorbitant. Last week, some members staged a protest outside the office of the BMC Commissioner, with regards to the same.

At the moment, the commissioner and the opposition leaders are at loggerheads with the latter walking out of the group council’s meeting on August 10 in protest against Chahal attending it via video conferencing.

The civic body meetings have been in limbo due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown during which Chahal has been running the city without taking the elected representatives into confidence, as per the allegations by the opposition leaders.

However, the BMC on Tuesday, August 11, issued a clarification that Chahal was just following the directives of the state to attend meetings via video conferencing and that most of the meetings of BMC offices too were being conducted through video conferencing as well because of the pandemic.