Infuriated due to waterlogged roads, Shiv Sena legislator from Chandivali, Dilip Lande forced a supervisor of nullah cleaning work to sit dirty water overflowing from the drain and asked his supporters to bathe him with garbage/filth. The video of this incident went viral across social media on Sunday.
The incident took place after areas like Sanjay Nagar and Sunder Baug in Kurla witnessed severe waterlogging for the last one week, following heavy rainfall. In the video, Lande and his supporters can be seen forcing the supervisor to sit on a waterlogged street and asking workers to dump garbage on him. Not only this but one of the party workers was seen pushing the supervisor (who is seen squatting on the ground) falls on the dirty water overflowing from the nullah.
“Utha.. utha... kachra iske upar phek (pick it up, pick it up, throw the garbage on him (supervisor)," Lande is seen instructing two men cleaning the filth.
"Why did your boss not come? Sit there (in dirty water and garbage) and call your boss now. There has been waterlogging here for the past week. Sit on the dirty water until your boss comes,” Lande is seen saying in the video.
Lande said: “I had been receiving numerous complaints from the local people. Those responsible for cleaning the garbage did not do their work for which people of my constituency had to wade through waterlogged streets. Now, I am punishing the contractor responsible for this by letting him get a feel of what people must be going through. This punishment they will never forget and will never dare to shirk their responsibility.”
“Residents of Sanjay Nagar and Suraj Baug threw garbage that led to water overflowing from the nullahs (drain). People have elected me to represent them. As my responsibility, Shiv Sena and Shiv Sainiks like me are working hard to clean/ desilt these nullahs and curb waterlogging. But this responsibility was of a contractor who was given the work and he didn’t do it properly,” added Lande
Meanwhile, opposition leaders especially those from BJP slammed Lande for his action and raised questions on the funds spent on nullah desilting as a Shiv Sena MLA himself accepted that the cleaning work had not been done properly.
“The BMC and Mumbai mayor has claimed that all drains have been cleaned across the city and they have overdone their target. As per the BMC's claim, they have cleaned 104 per cent of their total Nullah cleaning target for this year. Places like Sanjay Nagar and Suraj Baug are just one of the cases, many will be exposed. Now that their lies are being exposed and many skeletons are coming out in the open, they are harassing small contractors and supervisors," said Vinod Mishra, a BJP corporator from Kurar village in Malad.
BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya called Lande's action “gundagardi”. Somaiya took to Twitter and said: “Mumbai Mayor says 103% garbage removed by BMC & Shivsena MLA Dilip Lande assaulting Contractor for not removing Garbage. Actual Gundagardi is for Commission from the Contractor. BMC means Nexus of Mafia Contractors & Gundagiri of Shiv Sena. Is this acceptable to Congress Rahul Gandhi?”
