Despite the strict measures undertaken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to keep vigil during the nullah desilting work this monsoon, corporators have alleged that the preparations have
Despite the strict measures undertaken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to keep vigil during the nullah desilting work this monsoon, corporators have alleged that the preparations have gaping loopholes, which could possibly feed another scam. Leader of the BJP, Manoj Kotak said, the measures “lack clarity” and are “insufficient” to check corruption.
Congress corporator Devendra Amberkar, who was the Leader of Opposition when the desilting scam was unearthed last monsoon, said, “There is still no provision to physically check the desilting procedure. The BMC should have stationed officials for manual inspection.”
Mr Amberkar proposed that instead of the vehicle tracking system, which will now be monitored on screen, from the BMC headquarters, a person could accompany the truck to ensure it is actually taking rounds.
An inquiry report into the scam released last September revealed discrepancies in the VTS, which is a GPS chip fixed to a vehicle transporting silt to the dumping ground. It was observed that this chip was sometimes attached to a scooter that took rounds between the nullah and the dump, instead of the truck.
The report had also revealed log book entries that one truck took over 20 trips a day, while several entries showed it was used by different contractors in the same day.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh, in charge of the roads department, said, “This year we are centrally monitoring everything. To ensure that log book entries of these vehicles are not forged, one truck has been allotted to one contractor only.”
Mohsin Haider, Congress corporator who had pointed to fake receipts of amount of silt dumped at the grounds last year, said, “The BMC still does not have a mechanism to see if the amount of silt removed from any nullah is the same as that put on the dumping ground. That would have been the easiest way to figure if desilting was really happening at the nullahs.”
In defense, Mr Deshmukh said, “We have put weighing bridges only at four places, which will weigh incoming and outgoing trips of the trucks, to ensure silt is actually being dumped. We cannot physically monitor the nine dumping yards. We do not have the manpower to do that.”
