Mumbai civic body's standing committee on Monday was rocked by nullah-desilting scam once again with the Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress trading charges
Mumbai civic body's standing committee on Monday was rocked by nullah-desilting scam once again with the Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress trading charges.
On a proposal of desilting major nullahs in the island city, Congress corporators demanded that the proposal be deferred again. But the Sena-BJP allowed the proposal to be passed, despite there being only a single bidder to the project.
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Nullah-desilting scam once again disrupts working of Mumbai civic body's standing committee with the Shiv Sena, BJP and Congress trading charges. Pic/Satej Shinde
This scam hit the BMC last year after the June 19 floods when several parts of the city were waterlogged. The blame was laid on the contractors who did not remove silt from nullahs properly and they remained choked. The opposition blamed the ruling combine for this failure. An enquiry is underway in the matter and mid-day reported on Monday how 80 officials are under the scanner in the scam.
In Monday's standing committee meeting, a proposal which was deferred last week was brought back. The proposal was deferred the last time pending the municipal commissioner's response. Corporators had said that the proposal had got response from only one bidder.
This time around, the Congress party said that the standing committee should visit the sites where the silt is going to be dumped.
"Last time, the contractors duped the BMC stating that the silt would be dumped on a particular spot. What happened was that the silt was never removed. So shouldn't the committee make sure it visits those spots this time around? Also, are CCTV cameras, weights in place?" asked Comgress leader Pravin Chheda.
Chheda also demanded an enquiry into the "mafia raj" in the BMC. He towed BJP leader Kirit Somaiyya's line and blamed the 'Bandra Ka Sahab' for it. "I want to know who is this Bandra ka Sahab? Sena should answer," Chheda said, referring to Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray.
In response, Sena leader Trushna Vishwasrao said, "We allowed the proposal to be passed since we were satisfied with the commissioner's response. Even if there was only one bidder, the work has to be done. Otherwise Mumbai will be flooded again. That is why we allowed the proposal to be passed."
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