Mumbai civic body releases frozen ₹350-crore corporators’ funds

The money was frozen on Friday after BJP leader Vinod Mishra filed a complaint with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) last week alleging misappropriation of funds.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday released ₹350 crore of corporators’ funds which was frozen by the civic body on Friday. The money was part of ₹750 crore funds allotted by the standing committee to corporators to carry out discretionary civil development works in their electoral wards, which was not spent yet. It was frozen after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Vinod Mishra filed a complaint with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) last week, alleging misappropriation of a larger part of the funds to buy freebees in Shiv Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav’s constituency in Byculla. Mishra had also made a formal complaint with the municipal commissioner last week regarding misappropriate use of corporators’funds.

BJP leader Vinod Mishra had last week filed a complaint with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) alleging misappropriation of funds. (HT FILE)

The BJP challenged the administration’s decision to freeze the funds at a press conference held on Monday afternoon at the civic headquarters in Fort. BJP leader Bhalchandra Shirsat said, “The administration cannot freeze funds that have been duly allotted to corporators’ corpus via the standing committee’s approval. Any decision regarding this amount needs to be taken with the standing committee’s approval.”

Municipal commissioner IS Chahal confirmed on Monday evening that the funds were released by the administration.

The BJP on Monday also filed a first information report (FIR) against Jadhav for using abusive words and threatening violence toward himself and Mishra via a chat on a messaging application that took place on Sunday morning. The party also said that it will file a defamation case against Jadhav for making public allegations regarding Mishra’s involvement in Khichdi scam. Making the chat public, Mishra said, “Jadhav has also threatened to end his life. I have urged the home minister and chief minister to give him due police protection, so he does not harm himself. I will not be held responsible if he does something to himself.”

Regarding allegations of the chat, Jadhav denied exchanging such messages with Mishra. He said, “The chat has been falsified. My profile photo and name was used on some other account to create this chat. The BJP has been trying hard to malign the image of the Mumbai mayor and me. “

Speaking at a press conference on Monday afternoon, Jadhav said, “All allegations of misappropriate use of corporators’ funds are false. I also did not accuse Mishra of any involvement in Khichdi scam.”