Mumbai: BMC ducks RTI request for report on shoddy road repairs

The second phase of the inquiry into repairs on 200 roads was completed two months ago File picThe Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC wants to keep internal probe into its dirty business private When activist Noor Mohammad Khan from Goregaon sought reports of BMCs second phase of inquiry into shoddy road repair works through the Right to Information RTI Act his request was volleyed from one office to the next after which the civic body refused to give him the inquiry reports terming it as personal information that has nothing to do with public interestBMCs probesLast year after municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta ordered an inquiry into 34 roads in the first phase its report had revealed gross irregularities and shoddy repair work amounting to losses of R11 crore of revenue Following the report BMC had registered an FIR against six contractors and currently a special team of the police is conducting its own inquiryAlso read Mumbai BMCs tall claims to be monsoon ready will again drownImmediately after the first phase the civic body initiated a second phase of inquiry into 200 roads The report for it was submitted to the BMC chief in which 11 contractors were indicted for shoddy work According to the second report BMC has lost approximately R60 crore in shoddy road repair workPlaying officeofficeKhan had filed his first RTI in the office of the deputy municipal commissioner DMC zone3 Vasant Prabhu who was heading the inquiry to get reports of both the probesSpeaking to midday Khan said The DMC office sent a letter on April 15 and said that the copy of inquiry report is not available and is being sent to the Roads and Traffic and Inquiry departments so you can approach these offices to collect the documentWhen I approached the Inquiry department they forwarded my report to the Road and Traffic department The Road and Traffic department officials ultimately rejected his plea citing it as personal information which is not related to public interest see box BMC saysAlso read Mumbai BMC asks contractors to upload their report cardsThe second phase of the inquiry was completed two months ago and BMC had issued show cause notices to 11 tainted contractors but had not blacklisted them or registered an FIR against them midday reported on the inaction in the May 15 report BMC yet to blacklist file FIR against tainted road contractorsWhy hideKhan said If BMC is claiming they have completed the inquiry report then why they are hiding it The Prime Minister and chief minister talk about transparency but the road department is hiding the information I think there is something wrong with the inquiryKhan then appealed on May 31 to the executive engineer of the road department but it was also shot downBMC saysSpeaking to midday Sanjat Darate chief engineer of the Roads and Traffic department said The inquiry is on and we have sought an explanation from the contractors on the alleged malpractices Considering the status of the inquiry we cant provide the reports to anyoneRs 11 crLoss to BMC because of shoddy road repair work on 34 roadsRs 60 crLoss to BMC because of shoddy road repairs carried out on 200 roads