Earlier this month, the BMC had ordered the probe and issued orders to stop work and payment to the contractor—Shantinath Roadways—on directions of CM Eknath Shinde after three MLAs— Mihir Kotecha from BJP, Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Rais Shaikh from Samajwadi Party—alleged a scam in the street furniture contract. “Nine out of 13 street furniture items were fair items, which means they were not part of the BMC’s schedule of rates,” said a civic official. In May, Thackeray had written to governor Ramesh Bais urging him to instruct the state government for a Lokayukta inquiry.
BMC probe halts purchase of Rs 263cr worth street furniture
A probe by a committee appointed by the BMC into the alleged Rs 263 crore street furniture scam has found that nine out of the 13 items were overpriced. “The rates for pigmented concrete finish sandblasted cylindrical and square seats, pigmented concrete finish cylindrical dustbins, pigmented concrete finish square tree grates, rectangular glass fibre reinforced polymer flower pots/planters and glass fibre reinforced polymer benches rates seem to be extremely high even after negotiating with the contractor, ” said a civic official.
Officials said only a fraction of the street furniture items have been purchased. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray had written to governor Ramesh Bais urging him to instruct the state government for a Lokayukta inquiry into the scam. “There needs to be a fair inquiry, transparency and accountability towards MLAs and most importantly, clarity on whether it has been scrapped or kept on hold by BMC. The inquiry ordered by the government is vague and inadequate,” Thackeray said. “I have also asked the governor to direct BMC to furnish me with the documents I have sought regarding this scam…the payment already made to the contractor must be recovered and no further work orders must be given.” In his reply to Thackeray, BMC’s deputy municipal commissioner Harshad Kale, who handled the tender, denied irregularities and said that the work order was issued on March 23, and work started on April 1.
BJP’s Mihir Kotecha, who had first raised the issue in February, had said in the legislative assembly that the government had decided to scrap the contract. But Chahal had told TOI that following instructions from chief minister Eknath Shinde, BMC set up an inquiry committee which will submit its report in a month. “Once the report is received, a decision on whether or not to scrap the contract will be taken. For now, additional municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde has ordered to stop issuance of work orders, stop payments, not install the items received and stop further supply of the items,” Chahal had said.
