Shiv Sena party founder Bal Thackeray’s memorial at the mayor’s bungalow may not see the light of the day any time soon, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seemingly leaning on legalese to delay the process. After announcing the memorial in November 2015 on the third death anniversary of the Shiv Sena chief, Mr Fadnavis has now indicated that the civic body should go by the rule book.
Sources said Industries Minister Subhash Desai, a Shiv Sena leader, wrote to the Chief Minister recently to speed up the process of setting up Balasaheb’s memorial at the mayor’s bungalow.
It is learnt that Mr Fadnavis wrote ‘take action as per rules’ on the letter and forwarded it to the civic commissioner earlier this week.
Going by the rule book, the BMC (ruled by the Shiv Sena) cannot go ahead with the mayor’s bungalow as the memorial site because of a Supreme Court order that states that “no memorials should be allowed in future in any government houses earmarked for residential accommodation”.
“If the BMC administration starts the process to build a memorial there, it will be considered as contempt of court,” said a civic official.
Besides, MNS chief Raj Thackeray had already opposed the idea of a memorial at the Mayors bungalow and even said that if necessary, he would go to court.’