Mumbai: BJP wants detailed probe in Rs 22,000 crore tenders

The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP claims that merely cancelling the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations BMC street furniture tender is not enough a detailed investigation has to be ordered in past tenders worth Rs 22000 crore issued when the Shiv Sena ruled the civic bodyIn January 2023 BJP MLA Mihir Kotecha raised a red flag against a Rs 263 crore tender for street furniture Later Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray too firmly opposed the tender for street furniture on the grounds that there are several irregularities in the processFinally on Wednesday there was a buzz in political circles that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis had decided to cancel the tender In fact Kotecha in his letter issued on July 19 has applauded the state government for its decision to cancel the tender However while doing so the BJP MLA has questioned the Sena leadership on why Thackeray Jr is quiet on the Rs 2200 crore tenders in question and so vocal only on the street furniture tenderSpeaking to midday Kotecha said ldquoI had raised questions on BMCrsquos move to install street furniture Similarly I have raised questions on tenders worth Rs 2200 crore issued by the BMC during the Uddhav Thackerayled MVA government The Sena has been vocal on street furniture issues why arenrsquot they making the same noise on other tenders that are in question Even if Aaditya Thackeray or Sena leaders do not answer this question citizens are smart enough to understand politics of conveniencerdquoFurther responding to allegations that Kotecha who initially raised the street tender issue was later silent on the subject as it criticised BMCrsquos functioning during the ShindeFadnavis the BJP MLA said ldquoAfter bringing this issue to notice of Devendra Fadnavis I was asked to gather more details and evidence in this case Hence I was quietly completing the task assigned to me by my senior party leader It is only after I collected all the details the tender process has been cancelledrdquoBJP takes credit Aaditya says let itWhile the BJP congratulated its MLA Mihir Kotecha for taking the BMCrsquos R263 street furniture scam to its logical end Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray who had also raised the scam issue in the house and outside it said ldquoLet them take credit but he wanted the BMC chief to announce the scrapping of the contract and the state government to hold the inquiry by the Lokayutardquo Speaking at the Vidhan Bhavan the Worli MLA said he had written a letter to Governor Ramesh Bais on Wednesday itself in this regard ldquoAfter our meeting on May 10 2023 we kept raising the issue on various platforms and the fact that the BMC municipal commissioner was avoiding giving a reply to elected representatives to the state assemblyrdquo the letter saidIt said while the government had announced rather vaguely an inquiry into the scam he would urge it to protect his right as an elected representative ldquoAsk the government to conduct a fair inquiry into the scam through the office of the Lokayukta and instruct the BMC to stop all work and payments to the contractor and ask for refund for all payments made till date till the Lokayukta inquiry has concludedrdquo Aaditya saidInputs by Dharmendra Jore