“Prolonged administrator’s rule on BMC, other bodies for 3 years scandalous & shameful”

With Municipal Corporations elections to be held in a few months after over three years of unprecedented administrator’s rule, D M Sukthankar, Former State Chief Secretary and ‘first-ever’ administrator for BMC speaks to Omkar Gokhale about the impact of such a rule on decision making and citizens at large.

Q. You were the first ever administrator in BMC’s history in 1984. How would you take decisions in the absence of an elected body?

During my term as the Administrator, I did not undertake any major project nor any long-term or far-reaching policy decisions, nor any financial/fiscal decisions involving large capital or revenue expenditure or imposition of any new taxes or any alteration in existing tax rates. I genuinely felt that such decisions ought to be taken only by the elected bo