Mumbai: A heated exchange broke out between the ruling party and the Opposition at the BMC standing committee meeting on Wednesday over the withdrawal of thousands of crores of rupees from the civic body’s fixed deposits (FDs).The Opposition demanded that the civic administration issue a white paper detailing where, how and to what extent the ₹13,775 crore withdrawn from fixed deposits since the administrator’s tenure was spent.The ruling party, meanwhile, maintained that the funds were being used only for development works and would not be misused.Standing committee chairman Prabhakar Shinde said the BMC currently has fixed deposits worth ₹79,873 crore across various banks.The civic administration had tabled a quarterly report on fixed deposits up to March 2026 before the standing committee. However, Congress group leader Ashraf Azmi objected to the report, calling it incomplete and misleading.He demanded a clear account of the ₹13,775 crore withdrawn from fixed deposits between the year 2021 and March 2026.Azmi alleged that corporators were struggling to secure funds for toilet-related works while thousands of crores were being withdrawn from fixed deposits, without a timely account of their utilisation. “If deposits continued to be withdrawn on such a large scale, they could eventually be depleted,” he warned, asking where the BMC would find funds for development works over the next five years. He also demanded that the mayor convene a special meeting to discuss the utilisation of fixed deposits in detail.Responding to the Opposition’s allegations, ruling party leader in the civic House Ganesh Khankar agreed that the administration should regularly provide the standing committee with details of fixed deposits. However, he maintained that the funds were being used exclusively for development works and asserted that there would be no misuse under the current ruling dispensation.
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