The Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party executive, in a political resolution, has alleged corruption of more than Rs 3 lakh crore in the Shiv Sena-controlled BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the last 25 years. The BJP, which has already announced ‘Mission 2022’ with a resolve to defeat its erstwhile ally Shiv Sena in the upcoming civic elections slated early next year, has termed it the biggest-ever scam in the BMC since Independence, saying ‘it is bigger than the 2G, 3G spectrum, coal and Commonwealth Games scams’.
Further, the resolution resolved to continue the party’s fight for justice and the due rights of Mumbaikars. “The BJP commits to fight with Mumbaikars to boost Mumbai’s development in the BMC area and restore Mumbai’s past glory,” the party said. It clarified that its fight was not for power or to win the mayoral post but to deliver justice to Mumbaikars. Curiously, the BJP has conveniently forgotten that having shared power with the Shiv Sena for most of these 25 years, it is equally complicit in the scam it has alleged.
The BJP has slammed the Shiv Sena for bad roads and potholes in the monsoon, saying this is despite the latter having spent a whopping Rs 21,000 crore in the last 24 years. ‘Mumbai has gained a bad reputation for bad roads. In addition, despite an expenditure of Rs 7,000 crore in the widening of nullahs and setting up pumping stations, waterlogging is an annual feature,’ the resolution said.
Further, it said, ‘The BMC spends Rs 100 crore annually on nullah cleaning but over Rs 8,000 crore has gone waste over the years,’ and went on to claim that the corruption was evident in schools, hospitals and solid-waste management. “The scam came to the fore during the coronavirus pandemic when the BMC spent more than Rs 3,000 crore on the procurement of material and equipment and in the establishment of Covid centres. These works were awarded without floating tenders,” it has alleged. Despite deposits of Rs 80,000 crore, BMC could not conduct free vaccinations in the city.
According to the BJP, for the last 25 years, the Shiv Sena has been engaged in payoff/commission politics, especially during the weekly meeting of the standing committee.
The BJP recalled a slew of decisions taken by the BJP-led government headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from 2014 to 2019 for expediting the city’s development by putting on the fast track the implementation of metro rail, the trans-Harbour Link and the Coastal Road. However, after the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi assumed power in November 2019, it put a brake on the development agenda. It claimed that the metro rail project had been delayed by ‘ego politics’.
Furthermore, the BJP has alleged that the two-year rule of the MVA government has been marked by corruption, scams, scandals, inaction and inefficient functioning. During the pandemic, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ran the government working from home and through Facebook chats, which exacerbated the government’s inefficiency.
