BMC to probe Rs42 lakh loss

The civic standing committee, which is the monetary sanctioning authority in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has taken note of the contract awarded to a private firm that uses BMC labourers, causing a loss of Rs 42lakh a month.

The civic standing committee, which is the monetary sanctioning authority in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has taken note of the contract awarded to a private firm that uses BMC labourers, causing a loss of Rs 42lakh a month.

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Standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said, “There will be a preliminary inquiry and if any violation is found or if it is found that BMC is losing taxpayers’ money, we will order a thorough inquiry.”

Rajeev Chaugule, a Shiv Sena corporator, who is following the matter, has already wrote to the civic solid waste management department and standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale about the issue.

Civic chief engineer Bhalchandra Patil said there was nothing wrong in the contract. “We are providing labourers to the contractor, but it is as per the contract deal,” Patil insisted.

Milind Ranade, general secretary of Kachara Vahtook Shramik Sangh, has documents showing the losses and has demanded an inquiry.

On Thursday, HT reported about how BMC was losing Rs 42 lakh a month since January 2008 over a contract for lifting and dumping garbage.

Currently, BMC is getting just Rs 360 a day from the contractor, but has to get between Rs 1,080 and Rs 1,440 as it has been providing four to six extra labourers a day, per vehicle.

This means the BMC is paying the contractor the wages of these four or six extra labourers per vehicle, a day, but does not recover a single rupee from the contractor for these additional workers. Chaugule also said he would raise the issue in the general body meeting soon.