Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray protested at BMC headquarters in Mumbai on Saturday against alleged “corruption and illegal practices” in the civic body. The demonstrations began from the Metro Cinema Junction of the Dhobitalaw area of South Mumbai and saw large-scale participation from former Shiv Sena mayors, corporators and party workers.
It’s been over a year since the BMC house was dissolved and the BMC commissioner was appointed administrator.
In his speech, Thackeray held Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde responsible for various scams in the BMC after Shinde formed his government with the support of BJP.
Thackeray also criticised the current administrator of the BMC for neglecting the needs of the common Mumbaikars. He stated, “We have a track record of 25 years where we relentlessly worked for the people. In 1992, we transformed the BMC’s budget from deficit to surplus, along with its savings. But for the past year, there have been no people’s representatives at the BMC. Common Mumbaikars are not valued at the BMC, and officers are not fulfilling their responsibilities towards them. Instead, the BMC seems to extend a red carpet invitation to builders and big contractors.”
He further questioned the Shinde Fadnavis Government’s decision to form an SIT to investigate corruption allegations in the state civic body. “But what about the Thane, Nasik, Nagpur and Pune corporations? Why hasn’t an SIT been formed to investigate irregularities in these corporations during the same period?” he asked.
In his 35-minute speech, Thackeray explained what he believes are the four scams that took place under the Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis. Specifically targeting Shinde for awarding a road contract worth Rs 6,080 crore to five contractors who are allegedly close to him, Thackeray explained to the crowd how the current government ensured that these contractors would receive over 50 percent benefit over the contract cost.
“When I initially raised this issue, they gave me vague answers. But later I exposed their plan to make an advance payment of Rs 600 crore to these contractors. That’s when this government and their leaders started making personal allegations against me. In the history of BMC, it has never happened that the corporation made an advance payment before the completion of the work. It was only stopped because of us,” Thackeray said, taking credit for preventing the alleged looting of BMC funds.
He also claimed the state govt artificially created gravel shortage just to benefit one private company who’s owners are said to be close to the current govt. “With the help of revenue department they forced the gravel making small companies to stop the production and sell their products to one company only. This they did so that existing infrastructure works of BMC will get affected.”
He also spoke about the alleged street furniture scam of BMC in which the corporation had ordered 40,000 street bench and 10,000 flowerpots for the city.
“BJP MLA Mihir Kotecha raised this issue and indicated in his letter that there may be a possible scam in the procurement of these items. However, he was asked to go slow. Later, MLA Rais Shaikh and I asked similar questions on this issue, but we received very different answers. This shows how the BMC is functioning without people’s representatives to keep a check,” Thackeray said.
Thackeray also reacted to the recent incident in which the BMC demolished the Shiv Sena Shakha (Unit office) in the Bandra area. He held CM Shinde responsible for the move and said, “All of you have seen how hammers were used to break the photo frames of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray during the demolition of the Shiv Sena UBT Office. Let me tell them that when we form our government in the state again, we will use bulldozers against them. We will not spare those BMC officials who are looting the money of Mumbaikars.”
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