Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Friday slammed the Eknath Shinde government for its flip flop over the Metro car shed and multi-crore road contracts in Greater Mumbai. He told media persons at a presser at 'Matoshri' that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has now floated a tender for the construction of a car shed at Kanjurmarg for Line 6 at a cost of Rs506 crore.
Aaditya Thackeray questions hostility towards Mumbai
He further said that the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government had been advocating the shifting of the car shed from the ecologically-fragile Aarey forest to the state government land in Kanjurmarg. “However, the first decision of the illegally-formed government of Eknath Shinde was to relocate the car shed back to Aarey despite the enormous damage to the environment. In fact, the central government, which was a stakeholder in the Metro project, too had opposed the Kanjurmarg site in the court. I don't understand this hostility towards Mumbai which has been deprived of a huge green lung at Aarey. Even today there are five leopards at Aarey. In fact, Metro lines 6, 4 and 14 can have their common car shed at Kanjurmarg.”
Thackeray said that the state government was now exploring the possibility of buying two large plots in Thane to build a car shed for other corridors while the Kanjurmarg facility was adequate to meet the requirement of all lines. But, then some investors, who are readying to make a killing by selling the two Thane plots, will lose. “If my suggestion is implemented by the government then we can easily save at least Rs10,000 crore of tax-payers' money. But the Shinde government is not interested in taking pro-people decisions,” he alleged.
The Worli MLA also noted that the BMC has now issued show-cause notices to several contractors who were not only awarded road contracts in Mumbai, but were also given advance payment of several hundred crores. “I had warned that there was a huge racket in the award of these contracts, but then the BMC administration sought to counter my allegation. Now, realisation appears to have dawned on it. Ideally the works should have resumed on October 1. Now they will be delayed by several weeks. Mumbaikars will be the losers,” he averred.
Vowing to approach the Comptroller and Auditor General as well as Lokayukta against these 'rackets', Thackeray said that he would move the Bombay High Court if he did not get justice.
Asked about the refusal of the Mumbai police to act on the complaint of the Habib Trust that it was receiving threats from the underworld to sell Hotel Marine Plaza located on Marine Drive, he curtly remarked that nothing else can be expected from a government which was shielding criminal activities of its own men.
POINTERS:
Aaditya's scathing attack
Don't understand this government's hostility towards Mumbai
Why it wants to deprive city of Aarey's green lungs
Government hunting for car shed plots in Thane
It will help few investors to make a killing
Rackets at play behind BMC contract awards
Will approach CAG, Lokayukta against them
