The desilting scam, in which contractors have allegedly duped the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of crore of rupees, has become a tool for the ruling alliance partners — Shiv Sena and the BJ
The desilting scam, in which contractors have allegedly duped the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of crore of rupees, has become a tool for the ruling alliance partners — Shiv Sena and the BJP — to settle scores among them. While Sena has demanded the resignation of municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta, even threatening to issue a no-confidence motion against him, the BJP has opposed it, saying politics should not be played over such matters.
The BMC’s probe into the desilting works has revealed that contractors have swindled the civic body to the tune of Rs 38.13 crore. Following this, the civic chief has directed to blacklist all the 32 contractors involved in the desilting works.
However, Sena has held Mr Mehta solely responsible for the scam. BMC standing committee chairman Shailesh Phanse said, “There were no malpractices in desilting works, but they took place in lifting and transporting the silt. The scam has been done by the contractors and civic officials while trying to bridge the gap between the figures of quantity of silt removed from nullahs and silt quantity mentioned in tenders. We have been demanding that the BMC should pay only for quantity of silt actually removed from nullahs.”
“Mr Mehta should own up for the scam. We will demand his resignation in the next standing committee meeting. We are also planning to bring in a no-confidence motion against him,” Mr Phanse added.
Sena has also opposed civic chief’s decision to remove certain roads from the master plan. “If those roads were in good condition, why were they added to the master plan in the first place. The commissioner should explain this,” said Mr Phanse.
While Sena has slammed the municipal commissioner, the BJP has congratulated him for exposing corruption in desilting works. In an apparent dig at Sena, city BJP chief Ashish Shelar said, “To prevent misappropriation of tax-payers’ money, no politics should be played over such issues.”
