During the MiC tenure general body meetings were notoriously lax with most corporators treating them as a meeting place rather than to discuss agenda for the city. These meetings would only take off at around 4 pm instead of the scheduled 2.45 pm and the handful of those present would only crib about the functing of the institution with first time corporators barely venturing their opinions.

No longer. If today's general body meeting was any indication, Kandarkar's missive seems to have worked wonders. The general body meeting started sharp at 3 pm and ended in two and a half hours with the corporators speaking only on the issues taken up for discussion in the meeting.

Not only has Kandarkar threatened to come down on unpunctuality but has also made his displeasure clear about beeping mobile phones duringmeetings which he says `have a negetive negative effect on the debate.' Corporators have been debarred from carrying mobiles and pagers inside the House. He even plans to request the corporators not to carry pistols inside the House.

``This,'' promises the leader of the house ``is just the beginning. Now I will ensure that all the corporators dutifully attend all the proceedings. If need be I will organise workshops for corporators where they will be taught how to speak in the meetings and boost their morale,'' he added. He felt that the corporators who have been elected for the first time should speak up during the meeting and said that he would even form teams of corporators who would be given a subject to study and take part in the debate when the subject is raised in the meetings.

The corporators unanimously decided that the deputy Mayor Dr Ram Barot should sit next to the Mayor Hareshwar Patil when the meeting is in progress. This point was raised by Samajwadi Party corporator Ramesh Joshi whodemanded that the deputy Mayor should sit along with the Mayor and that his veichle should sport a klaxon. He was supported by the others including former Mayor Nandu Satam.

However, Satam was terse in his speech and added that he had insisted right in the first meeting that Dr Barot should sit next to Patil. He was critical of Patil's statement that the municipal commissioner would look into the protocol and decide the matter.

However, Patil was forced to take a decision then and there and he ruled at the deouty Mayor would sit next to him and for this the podium would have to be made bigger.