Mumbai: A day after BJP Mumbai President MLA Ashish Shelar inspected desilting work, the civic authorities conducted a surprise visit to Wakola and Mithi rivers on Thursday.
While the civic officials assured that the desilting work would be completed by June 5, Shelar has questioned whether the private dumping ground in Vasai, where silt from different nullahs gets collected, has been audited.
With just a week left to complete the pre-monsoon work, the BMC speeded up the desilting work. Shelar expressed displeasure after inspecting some of the nullahs cleaning work in the western suburbs. On the second day of inspection, he noticed that desilting of Irla nullah in the western suburbs was yet to be completed, whereas at Jeevan Nagar nullah, there was still a layer of silt and floating material.
"BJP’s entire system has geared up and is closely monitoring the drainage cleaning activities. We are not satisfied with the work. The BMC, that readily puts its hands in the pockets of the taxpayers in Mumbai, has miserably failed to put its hands in the drains to clean it. The bottom of the drains hasn’t been concretized and so there is no calculation on the amount of sludge that has been removed," said Shelar.
Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani himself inspected the desilting work carried out on the Wakola river. He also inspected the retaining work of the wall, desilting and widening of the Mithi river. The encroachment has been the biggest hurdle in the widening of the river, pointed out by civic officials. Gagrani instructed the civic officials to speed up the process.
Illegal structures should be removed after obtaining an order from the court and rehabilitating the eligible structures. Meanwhile, additional municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde visited SNDT nullah at Bandra West, Rasraj nullah at Andheri West, Andheri subway, Walbhat river at Goregaon East, Malad subway, Poisar river in Kandivali, railway culvert at Borivali East.
