Know Your BMC

BMC at a glance

BrihanMumbai Municipal corporation is the governing civic body of Mumbai, established under the Bombay municipal corporation act 1888. BMC is India’s richest municipal corporation; its annual budget exceeds that some of India’s smaller states.

Total area	437.71 sq. km
Total population	1,20,00,000+
Total employees	1,20,000+
Annual budget	Rs 12,000+ cr

Current City officials of BMC

Mayor	Kishori Pednekar (22 November, 2019)
Deputy mayor	Suhas Wadkar (22 November, 2019)
Municipal commissioner	Iqbal Singh Chahal (8 May, 2020)
Police commissioner	Hemant Nagrale (17 March, 2021)

Mayor – The BMC Head

BMC is headed by a mayor, who is an IAS officer. Elections are conducted after every five years for the Corporators. The mayor is elected from the party who gets the majority. Mayor is elected from among the Corporators and serves a term of 2-1/2 year. Mayor is the one who chairs the general body meeting of all Corporators and is the ceremonial head of municipal corporation.

BMC Corporators and their duties

Members are elected every five years from each ward, and are known as councillors or Corporators. Mumbai has total 227 seats and thus have 227 Corporators.

Corporators are the link between the public and the civic body. They have control over all the financial and budgetary matters, that is, approval of contracts, allocation of expenditure, determining taxes and all the other financial matters. They are responsible for the implementation of policies. The work is divided between various committees.

The BMC Commissioner

Commissioner is appointed by the state government, is an official of IAS rank of additional secretary. He ensures the smooth functioning of BMC and implements the decisions of the corporation. A commissioner can approve proposals having a financial outlay of Rs 20 lakh. If it exceeds 20 lakhs, then it is forwarded to the standing committee.

The need of local Corporators

For issues like, flooding, water logging, garbage maintenance, poor roadways and for the personal issues like birth/ death certificate, a local Corporator is needed.

Committees in BMC

Committees are responsible for monitoring specific tasks. They are comprised of Corporators. Nine are the statutory bodies whose orders are binding on the civic body.

The 227- member House
The mayor
The municipal commissioner
Standing committee
BEST committee; includes experts

Improvements committee
Education committee; has experts
The ward committee
General manager of BEST

The special committees

Public Health committee
Works committee (for city)
Works committee (for suburbs)

Law, Revenue and General purposes committee
Women and children welfare committee
Markets and garden committees

Recent addition to the committees

Tree authority- This is headed by the commissioner, unlike the others and it includes general public.

It is responsible for department of garden, saving the trees and mangroves destruction.

How work is done in BMC

Citizens take the proposal to the Corporators of their respective wards
The Corporator keeps the proposal in front of the ward committee, which at local level monitors the civic functions and includes officials and Corporators
If the cost of proposal exceeds Rs 5 lakh, the ward committee forwards it to the commissioner
Commissioner can deal with the financial amount of Rs 20 lakh, but if the proposal is more than that, it is forwarded to the standing committee, which is responsible for all the proposals which has financial commitment
The proposal gets examined by the standing committee and later gets to the final authority of 227- member House

The major departments of BMC

1. Department of solid waste management

Road sweeping
Toilet maintenance
Garbage clearing
Animal carcasses and solid waste disposal

2. Water works department

Provision of drinking water
Maintaining and operating water supply system

3. Sewerage department

Constructing and maintaining sewage infrastructure

4. Road maintenance department

Constructing and maintaining the roads and footpaths

5. Strom water drain department

Constructing and maintaining the Strom water drains

6. shops and establishments department

Renewing and registering the establishment licences
Regulation of work conditions in the establishments

7. Public health department

IN charge- executive health officer, and medical officer of health (MOH) – at ward level

Hospitals of BMC
Registering private nursing home
Regulating places for disposal of dead bodies
Curbing of communicable diseases
Immunisation
Sanitation of food, preventing the adulteration of food

Monitoring dog population
Pest control and insects
Impounding stray cattle
Control of trading which pose health hazard

8. Education department

Offering free education to children upto class Vll
Special education for differently abled

9. Building proposal department

Examining proposals for the development of land
Examining proposals to carry out additions, repair of buildings and alterations

10. Garden department

IN charge- superintendent and garden supervisor at ward level

Maintaining the gardens

The problems with respective departments

Water problems	Water Works
Uncleared garbage	Solid waste management
Hawker menace	ward officer
Untidy roads	Road Maintenance
Unkempt Garden	Garden supervisor
Dog, cow, buffalo menace	health department
Violation by builder, developer	building proposal department
Cutting trees	Garden department
Trimming trees	Tree authority
Flood	Storm Water Drain/Sewerage
Birth/death certificate	Health department
Overflowing drain	Sewerage
Malfunctioning sewage system	Sewerage
Disposal of bodies, animal carcass	health department