Chahal rebuts Aaditya’s charges on corruption in BMC

A day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray led a morcha to the BMC, alleging corruption and misgovernance in several of its projects, civic chief and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal held a press conference to counter the charges of alleged scams pertaining to roads, street furniture and the misuse of the civic body’s Fixed Deposits (FDs)

MUMBAI: A day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray led a morcha to the BMC, alleging corruption and misgovernance in several of its projects, civic chief and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal held a press conference to counter the charges of alleged scams pertaining to roads, street furniture and the misuse of the civic body’s Fixed Deposits (FDs).

Chahal rebuts Aaditya’s charges on corruption in BMC

Chahal first elaborated on the FDs, pointing out that when he took charge on May 8, 2020, the FDs were worth ₹79,115 crore. “By March 31, 2022, the figure had gone up to ₹91,690 crore,” he said. “And as of June 30, 2023, it is ₹86,467 crore.”

The civic chief then gave an account of the spend: the BMC, he said, was obliged by policy to pay a certain share of fungible FSI money to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and this share of ₹2,050 crore had not been paid for the last five years. “There were also pending gratuity and pension dues of BEST employees for which an amount of ₹2,567 crore has been earmarked,” he said.

Chahal then stated that by March 31, 2023, ₹14,000 crore was spent on capital works, including road development and the Mumbai coastal road project. “So the allegations that the BMC’s FDs have depleted are untrue,” he said. “Our financial position is strong under the administrative regime.”

Regarding the perennial issue of potholes on roads, the civic chief said that it was unfair to compare Mumbai with cities that received less rainfall. “Due to non-drainage of water, geographical conditions and continuous rains, potholes form on asphalt roads,” he said. “CM Eknath Shinde instructed us to look for a permanent solution. The BMC then invited tenders for concreting about 400 km of roads.”

Chahal said that the ₹5,807-crore tenders had to be carried out according to the Unified Schedule of Rates, 2018. “Therefore, the tender process was cancelled, and a new tender process was implemented within 15 days,” he said. “But from 2018 to 2023, the construction cost had increased significantly. The value of materials required for road construction were thus revised, and a tender worth ₹6,080 crore was issued.”

Chahal said that as the market rates were very high, the big companies were not willing to work at the old rates, and the BMC thus revised the tender value and related rates to conform to market rates. “Accordingly, a 17% price hike and 6% GST resulted in a 23% increase in the tender value,” he said. “Five contractors bid eight to 10% more than the tender values. However, they were given work orders as per the tender values. All this has been done according to the rules.”

Regarding the allegation that sanitary napkins rates in public toilets were hiked, Chahal said that according to the survey conducted by the Solid Waste Management department, there were a total of 8,173 toilets under the BMC, and it was decided to install sanitary napkin vending machines in 5,000 toilets only.

“The higher price of the Combo Sanitary Napkin Vending and Incinerator Machine proposed by the BMC is mainly due to the scope of work and technical details of the machine,” he said. “The rate of the machine is not limited to supply, installation, testing and commissioning. The contractor is required to appoint field staff to operate the machines for the next three years. The cost of manpower, transport and incidentals is included in the price of the combo machine.”

On the alleged ₹263-crore street furniture scam, Chahal clarified that in order to bring in uniformity among departments, coordination between the various systems was necessary as was the appointment of a single contractor to facilitate different street furniture matters like digging, concreting and supervision of technical work. “The street furniture tender process was implemented via e-tendering according to prevailing tender terms and conditions of a single contractor for a total of 13 items,” he said. “Accordingly, the contract has been awarded to the lowest bidder. We have a budget of ₹222 crore to be incurred in the next three years, of which we have spent only ₹22 crore.”