Mumbai: Following concerns over the misuse of taxpayers’ funds and a potential scam raised by Mumbai BJP President and MLA Ameet Satam, the BMC on Friday scrapped the Rs 150-crore tender for thermoplastic paint for road markings. Satam said this move is part of efforts to clean up the BMC administration and ensure transparency and corruption-free governance.
This is third such tender put on hold by the BMC since the BJP came to power. Recently, the Rs 300 crore tender to install bollard railings and Rs 400 crore tender for Byculla zoo were also scrapped after the BJP highlighted potential scam and escalated prices.
“The Mumbai Clean League, a cleanliness competition, is being organized to improve Mumbai’s ranking in cleanliness. At the same time, a cleanup of all systems within the BMC is also underway. Unnecessary work, substandard work, and rigged tenders are being cancelled to fulfil the commitment of the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance to provide corruption-free governance. From this perspective, actions are being taken to ensure that all systems within the BMC are corruption-free,” said Satam.
Last week the MLA wrote to Mayor Ritu Tawde and BMC Chief Bhushan Gagrani and demanded action in the matter. In his letter, Satam questioned the rationale behind the tender, which earmarked Rs 50 crore each for the city, eastern suburbs, and western suburbs despite stark differences in road lengths.
The western suburbs have nearly three times the road length compared to the eastern suburbs and the city area, indicating that the allocation appears arbitrary and lacks proper analysis. Satam further argued that with over Rs 10,000 crore worth of cement concrete (CC) road works currently underway across Mumbai, road markings should be included within those ongoing contracts. Therefore, this appears to be a major scam in the making, as there is no additional requirement for a separate tender for road marking paint.
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Raising further concerns, he pointed out that the tender does not specify the cost per kilometre for paint application, which raises questions about transparency and suggests that cartelisation may be at play; and claimed that that certain contractors, in collusion with officials, often conceptualise projects and tailor tenders to suit their interests. “This practice should be completely eliminated from the BMC. Works should be conceptualised either by elected representatives, the administration, or both together—not by contractors. There is a dire need to make our systems citizen-centric rather than contractor-centric,” asserted Satam.
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