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Govt to probe ‘rat killing scam’ in BMC
The development came after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Badra MLA Ashish Shelar, in the assembly, alleged a scam in the rat-killing contract given by BMC for its five wards.
Nagpur: The state government, on Thursday, announced a committee to probe the alleged rat killing scam in five wards of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for which ₹1 crore was spent. The committee will investigate who was the contractor and other incidental details including the number of rats killed and the manpower used for it.
The development came after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Badra MLA Ashish Shelar, in the assembly, alleged a scam in the rat-killing contract given by BMC for its five wards.
“As per my information, the contract was reeled under corruption. If the civic body has spent ₹1 crore, the related information as to how many rats were killed, how many people were engaged for the job,” he said.
He had been a corporator for years, but never heard of BMC employees killing the rats, Shelar said, adding, “I think an inquiry needs to be conducted in the allotment and implementation of the contract.”
Public health minister Tanaji Sawant, while admitting the demand, announced to conduct of an inquiry by a committee. “The information given by Shelar is very serious in nature. The truth in this entire episode needs to come to the fore. It needs to investigate how many rats were killed, what was the methodology to count the number of the killed rats and who counted it. It also needs to investigate who the contractor appointed for the work. The state government will investigate all these aspects by constituting a committee,” he added.
BJP had raised the issue in the standing committee in February and alleged the scam of ₹1 crore. BJP group leader Prabhakar Shinde questioned the number of rats killed by the civic body.
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