Mumbai: City BJP President Ashish Shelar has claimed that the BMC’s figures on the amount of silt removed during nullah cleaningdrives were inflated.
Shelar was speaking after inspecting nullah cleaning works in the eastern suburbs. He was joined by Member of Parliament Manoj Kotak, legislators Mihir Kotecha and R Tamil Selvan, several former corporators and BJP office-bearers, and BMC officials.
Nullahs inspected:
They inspected nullahs at Tambe Nagar in Mulund, Ramgad, Bhandup, Usha Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Mahul and one near JP Chemicals.
In most of these places, the work had started only recently and the drains were full of silt, Shelar said.
“This was the second day of our inspection. We found that there was a huge difference between the figures provided by the administration and the actual reality. The administration is giving information that the contractors have provided. There will be transparency only if the administration re-examines and maintains a check on the amount of silt actually removed,” he said.
The BMC has allocated Rs81.32 crore for cleaning major nullahs in Mumbai city and the eastern and western suburbs, Rs15 crore for cleaning nullahs parallel to the eastern and western expressways, Rs87 crore for cleaning Mithi River and another Rs103 crore for cleaning small drains in eastern suburbs. In short, a financial provision of more than Rs286 crore has been made for nullah cleaning in Mumbai.
