Nagpur: A Congress corporator’s protest against alleged wasteful expenditure by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) took an unexpected turn at the general body meeting on Wednesday, with ruling party leader Narendra Borkar objecting to his T-shirt and Pande being asked to remove it.Congress corporator Shailesh Pande arrived at the Suresh Bhat auditorium in Reshimbagh wearing a white T-shirt carrying slogans targeting the civic administration’s spending on the Marbat festival, Shravan Mahotsav and other events. After the meeting began, Borkar objected to Pande wearing the T-shirt. Pande was subsequently asked to remove it and returned to the meeting after changing.The incident came amid political friction over NMC’s expenditure on the recently held Marbat festival and publicity campaigns. The Congress has questioned the allocation of Rs2 crore for the festival and sought accountability for civic spending.Pande’s T-shirt carried the Marbat festival logo and the words ‘Paishanchi Udhpatti’ (wasteful expenditure). It also listed spending on the Marbat festival and Shravan Mahotsav, along with lakhs of rupees of taxpayers’ money allegedly spent on office-bearers’ oath-taking ceremony and renovation of their office chambers. The slogan ‘5 lakh tree plantation on paper’ was another jab at the civic administration.The rear of the T-shirt highlighted NMC’s core responsibilities, including sewage management, sanitation, streetlights, water supply, roads and schools, suggesting that civic funds should be prioritised for basic services rather than celebrations and publicity.Before the meeting, Pande also staged a symbolic protest outside the civic headquarters, seeking donations for his prabhag 11. He alleged discrimination in the allocation of development funds.Pande was accompanied by Congress corporators Abhijit Jha, Wasim Khan, Atul Kotecha, Sujata Kombade and Dinesh Yadav.The protest follows criticism by Leader of Opposition Sanjay Mahakalkar over NMC’s spending on the Marbat festival. The opposition has demanded details of expenditure and questioned the civic administration’s priorities at a time when residents continue to raise concerns over sanitation, roads and other basic amenities.The T-shirt episode added a political flashpoint to Wednesday’s general body proceedings, with the opposition using symbolic protest to highlight its allegations of financial mismanagement and discrimination in development funding.
