Disclose number of rats killed in Mantralaya, Opposition tells Maharashtra government

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Jayant Patil raised the issue while participating in a debate over corruption in the state assembly on Tuesday.

Raking up the alleged rat scam in the state administrative headquarters — Mantralaya, the opposition has asked the state government to disclose the number of rats actually killed in the headquarters building after using 3.19 lakh anti-rodent tablets.

He also questioned the government’s claims that 3.19 lakh zinc phosphide tablets were used to kill rats. (HT File)

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Jayant Patil raised the issue while participating in a debate over corruption in the state assembly on Tuesday. He also questioned the government’s claims that 3.19 lakh zinc phosphide tablets were used to kill rats.

Former revenue minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Eknath Khadse had rocked the state assembly last week by alleging that the government killed 3.19 lakh rats at its administrative headquarters in just seven days.

The ruling party then ridiculed him saying Khadse mistook the number of anti-rodent tablets for rats.

“Strangely, not a single Mantralaya employee saw a dead rat or encountered stench of dead rats in the premises despite more than 3 lakh zinc phosphide (anti-rodent) tablets being used,” Patil said raising questions over the claims.

Indicating that it as a scam, Patil further asked the state government to inform the lower house that the bill was paid to whom and in which bank account as Amol Shedge, owner of the firm Vinayak Mazoor Sahakari Sanstha, who was awarded the contract to kill rats, had passed away in 2008.

Earlier, the state government had said the payment made to the private agency was for the 3.19 lakh anti-rodent tablets at a rate of Rs1.50 for each tablet. It said that the reply to the query raised under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, too, had clarified this.

Khadse had referred to the RTI information for indirectly alleging a scam in the state secretariat by general administration department (GAD) headed by the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.