In a recent allegation of graft and bungling in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), BJP corporators have alleged a scam in the Mumbai civic body's contract for scrap. They said there is a racket of 21 companies with the same owner and the same address, who have been operating and bagging most scrap dealing contracts for the last five decades.
BJP corporator and standing committee member Bhalchandra Shirsat, who is also BJP's spokesperson in the BMC, has written to Mumbai mayor, standing committee chairman and the BMC commissioner alleging that the civic body has been suffering losses to the tune of crores almost every year because of this.
Shirsat in his letter also urged the civic chief to get the civic vigilance department investigate the matter at the earliest and blacklist the contractors involved with a criminal inquiry. He said, "The BMC commissioner should get the details of previous or recent auction of scraps and get it investigated." He added that in every new tender process, new bidders do not get a chance as the same dealers take part at a large scale and bag the contract year after year. “Therefore, the tender process is not competitive and transparent. At the same time, the company scrap dealer participating in the auction has the same address in Sakinaka and the same owner, Abdul Hasan Ali,” he said, alleging a scam of sorts.
According to Shirsat, the corporation is going to purchase many new electric vehicles. Therefore, the old vehicles will be scrapped. Hence the BMC will have to suffer a loss of crores of rupees because of this racket. "It is also important to investigate the role of civic officials involved in this matter, helping the racket operate," Shirsat said.
Standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav was not available for comment. However, a BMC official said, "It is a serious allegation, we are will look into it first. We cannot comment at this stage. With elections around the corner, there will be many allegations and counter-allegations. We have to carefully investigate these issues."
