31 August,2020 06:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Arita Sarkar
MMRDA has been accused of misappropriation of public funds in construction of jumbo facilities at BKC
The principal secretary to the Maharashtra governor, Santosh Kumar, has asked the Lokayukta to conduct an enquiry into the alleged financial irregularities in the construction of COVID care facilities in the city by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
Kumar wrote a letter to the Lokayukta, Justice M L Tahaliyani, on August 25 after BJP corporator Vinod Mishra alleged financial irregularities in the construction of two dedicated COVID facilities at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) by the MMRDA.
In his complaint to the government last month, Mishra claimed that the MMRDA, on the directions of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, had built the COVID care facilities even though they had no prior experience in dealing with construction of medical facilities.
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"I had requested for a joint investigation by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Central Public Works Department in the misappropriation of public funds by MMRDA. After leaving the BMC out of the decision-making process and spending crores on the facilities, the MMRDA passed a resolution to recover '59.27 crore from the BMC. The MMRDA's regulations and procedures need to be investigated," he had stated in his letter.
The BMC has refused to pay, stating that they hadn't approached the government agencies like the MMRDA, MHADA, CIDCO and MMRCL for the construction of the jumbo facilities. Earlier this month, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal wrote to Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar stating that the state government should direct the agencies to not bill BMC for the facilities.
When contacted, Chahal said the BMC has nothing to do with the enquiry and reiterated that the civic body doesn't owe any money.
"The CM had taken a decision three weeks ago that whichever agency has constructed a COVID centre in Maharashtra will be responsible for the cost. We [the BMC]
neither own any nor did we approach them to construct the facilities in the first place," he said.
A spokesperson from MMRDA said they have already submitted their reply to queries raised by Lokayukta earlier this month.
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