Mumbai : It seems that the BMC’s two ruling parties are taking turns to point fingers at each other over the issue of pre-monsoon nullah de-silting work.
Manoj Kotak, BJP’s leader in the BMC said on Wednesday that the Sena has been misleading Mumbaikars and making baseless accusations against the administration, even though BMC chief Ajoy Mehta is yet to finish the de-silting probe.
This is in reply to Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shevale demand on Tuesday that BJP MLA and Mumbai President Ashish Shelar should resign for accusing the administration of fuelling Rs 100 crore scam and misleading Mumbaikars in the process. Kotak raised questions about the credibility of Shevale’s claims and said the Sena MP was backtracking on his party’s earlier stand.
Producing snippets of Sena’s leader of the house Trushna Vishwasrao’s speech in a previous standing committee meeting, Kotak pointed that she had hailed Mehta’s decision of setting up a probe committee and had demanded that the civic body take criminal action against erring contractors.
Kotak said, “The report proves that silt was carried to the dumping grounds on two wheelers. BJP has consistently revealed that there is a problem with weighing machines used to measure amount of silt extracted from the nullahs. We have held our ground always.”
He refuted Shevale’s accusations that when the BJP claims of a scam, it has fabricated the Rs 100 crore figure.
Kotak said that Mehta’s probe was still incomplete. Along with figures of minor nullahs, the cost will amount to Rs 100 crore.
However, Kotak dodged questions about a possible political angle to the Sena-BJP ongoing tussle and whether it is in preparation for the BMC elections due in 2017, where the two ruling parties may contest against each other.