Fadnavis orders probe into BMC’s ₹42-crore contract for sanitary pad vending machines

On Thursday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab moved a breach of privilege motion against BMC chief I S Chahal and excise minister Shambhuraj Desai over the alleged irregularities. Parab said despite Desai giving an assurance to the house in the budget session, the contract hasn’t been scrapped and Chahal has not given him time for a meeting with him on the issue

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced in the council that an inquiry will be conducted into the allegations of irregularities by BMC while awarding a ₹42-crore contract to procure sanitary pad vending machines.

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On Thursday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab moved a breach of privilege motion against BMC chief I S Chahal and excise minister Shambhuraj Desai over the alleged irregularities. Parab said despite Desai giving an assurance to the house in the budget session, the contract hasn’t been scrapped and Chahal has not given him time for a meeting with him on the issue.

He alleged that while awarding the contract, BMC showed a greater number of public toilets in Mumbai than the actual on ground. While each machine costs ₹40,000, as per the central government’s GEM portal, BMC is buying those units for ₹76,000 each, Parab said.

In his response, Fadnavis said BMC’s contract to install 5,000 sanitary pad vending machines in public toilets has been reduced to a pilot project of just 200 machines. “BMC has not installed 5,000 but only 200 machines as a pilot project and only after monitoring the performance will a decision be made on installing the remaining machines. Whatever issues Parab has raised against BMC will be probed in detail.”