Mumbai: Malad corporator threatens dharna against ward officer's irregularities

A Corporator from Malad has levelled allegations of irregularities and flouting norms against the ward officer and has threatened to stage a dharna if the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC doesnrsquot take action against the said officialCorporator Cyril Drsquosouza showing cracks inside a building has alleged that Devendra Kumar Jain assistant municipal commissioner of PNorth ward colluded with builders to demolish even structurally fit buildings last yearCyril Drsquosouza corporator from the PNorth ward and the ward committee chairman wrote a letter on September 12 to the civic chief and the mayor alleging that Devendra Kumar Jain assistant municipal commissioner of the ward has broken several rules and acted according to his own whims and fanciesIn the letter Drsquosouza alleges that last year Jain has demolished several buildings in his locality in spite of them being structurally fit This Drsquosouza says is in connivance with buildersThe committee chairman further continued that Jain had rented out the ward office for a TV serial shoot involving Amitabh Bachchan for a sum of R48000 in April a decision that goes against the grain of the code of conduct of the BMC which forbids official premises from being used for private purposesDrsquosouza further pointed out the dilapidated condition of the ward office itself and said that despite it being in such a condition Jain went ahead and renovated only his office with funds sanctioned by another corporator in the month of June Drsquosouza questioned why Jain had only used the funds for his own office and not refurbishing the building on which cracks have developed on the beams and columnsTendering scamJainrsquos name is the only ward officerrsquos to have cropped up in inquiry into the recent Rs 100crore etendering scam exposed by this newspaper A total of 21 engineers from nine wards are under the scanner for allegedly opening up the electronic bidding system late at night to aid their favoured contractorsAs soon as the colluding parties had placed the bids engineers made sure the system didnrsquot work for other bidders who were unaware of the unfair advantage their competitors had been granted This resulted in the BMC paying more for works and losses to the tune of Rs 100 crore Ironically the etendering system had been introduced to bring in more transparency in the bidding systemCivic chief Sitaram Kunte had ordered an inquiry into the scam It is also being investigated whether the software engineers are also part of the scam The lapses had been found by the BMCrsquos Test Audit and Vigilance Officer departmentDrsquosouza told midday ldquoHe has taken decisions without any regard for rules and acts of the BMC Yet there is no action taken against him I have sent the letter and have also attached documents showing how a corporator assisted him in renovation and how he gave permissions for a shoot in the ward officeI hope that after his name has come up in the inquiry of the Rs 100crore etendering scam he is not spared and the harshest action is taken against him If nothing comes of all this I will sit on a dharna outside the municipal commissionerrsquos officerdquo