Always in the news, mostly for the wrong reasons, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has now landed itself in an embarrassing situation following the mysterious disappearance of one of its trucks mounted with vacuum suction tankers to pump out the sewage water from underground septic tanks. A section of civic personnel are under the scanner of police investigations.
The vehicle was parked in the premises of the old fire brigade building in the 60 feet area of Bhayandar (west). Notably, the vehicle department woke up from its slumber after members of local social organizations raised a query seeking the whereabouts of the vehicle, following which an FIR was registered by an employee attached to the vehicle department Mahendra Gawand on behalf of the MBMC on December 9, 2020.
“It was an out of use vehicle which had been junked. Having said so it was a municipal property and we have duly registered an offence in this context. Those found guilty will be taken to task,” said deputy municipal commissioner Dr. Sambhaji Panpatte.
It has been alleged that the vehicle was not stolen but had been sold off months ago as scrap by some corrupt civic personnel and the FIR was just a desperate attempt to cover-up to actual fact. The incident has not only exposed the negligence and apathy of the personnel attached to the sanitation and vehicle department, but has also brought to light the huge chinks in the security apparatus of the civic body which doles out astronomical amounts in the form of monthly payouts to a private manpower agency hired to secure civic properties.
Shiv Sena legislator Geeta Jain has also sought a detailed probe into the matter. Used to clean septic tanks and sewerage lines, the suction machine was equipped to perform hydraulic systems to pull out silt, slug and other waste via pipes attached to the suction machine. It may be recalled that an auto-rickshaw impounded by the MBMC had gone missing from a civic property in Mira Road last year.
