Thane: The RTI activists from Thane through an RTI revealed a scam worth Rs 8 crore in Thane Municipal Corporation's (TMC) drain cleaning work.
Swapnil Mahindrakar, a social activist from Thane said, "On the one hand, the TMC is cutting many development works due to lack of funds, but through RTI it came to light that the officials of TMC in glove with hands with the contractors have done scam of crores while cleaning the drains."
Tender floated in 2022 for the drainage work
Mahindrakar through RTI revealed that, "A tender of around Rs 8 crore rupees was floated for the year 2022-2023 for the drainage works in the TMC area. Tenders were floated for this work, but no task order has been passed till date. The question arises as to how the contractors have done the drain cleaning work even though there is no task order for this work. Even though this drain cleaning work is not of a special nature, the officials of the civic body are deceiving the civic body by showing that the work is of a special nature, despite the trend rate of 19 per cent in the related work, this work is not done according to the trend price. Moreover, in the sewerage work, as per the terms of the tender, measurements of the sludge removed from the drain, photographs of the sludge, photos before and during the sewage cleaning work, video recording, information about the vehicles carrying the sludge, list of workers cleaning the drains, information about the facilities provided to the workers are not available with the Solid Waste Department of the Municipal Corporation. From all of this it is clear that crores are being embezzled in this show of drain cleaning."
Masterminds of this scam
Meanwhile, while pursuing this issue for the last six months, the concerned authorities have refrained from providing this information from time-to-time and it is revealed through the documents that the then Assistant Commissioner of Solid Waste Department and the Chief Health Officer are the masterminds of this scam.
"Interestingly, the high-ranking officials of this department have changed the drain cleaning documents of the financial year 2022-23 to authorize this drain cleaning scam, and an attempt is being made to grab funds for this work on the basis of that and earlier dates are being used instead."
Transfer due to scam
After the new commissioner assumed office, the deputy commissioner of the solid waste department was transferred a few months ago after getting information about the scam in the solid waste department. But still the session of scams continues. Although a year has passed on the website of the government's grand tender, it is seen that the task order for this work is still not available on this website, thus it is revealed that the officials of TMC are cheating the government.
"The officials of the solid waste department colluding with the contractors are committing corruption of crores of rupees in the drain cleaning work and to curb this corruption, the municipal commissioner should examine the drain cleaning work through an organization like IIT. Also, provision should be made to take punitive and suspension action against officials who cause harm in drain cleaning work," said Mahindrakar.
