By Express News Service
MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP leader and MLA Ashish Shelar on Monday alleged Rs 1000 crore scam in Mumbai’s coastal road project.
Shelar asked CM Uddhav Thackeray to probe the scam by forming a special investigation team (SIT). The coastal road project is being carried out by the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Neither Sena nor the BMC has reacted to these allegations so far.
Shelar alleged that Sena had a role in the. The MLA said Sena was involved in the scam by committing financial misappropriation while executing the project from October 2018 to December 2020.
“I am confident that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will immediately take note of these corruption charges. It is now clear that one of the most important projects to congest traffic jams has been plagued by financial malpractice and corruption. It is unfortunate that Mumbaikars will have to bear huge losses. I have also given such a letter to Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal,” Advocate Shelar said.
“Was the scam done with the consent of the BMC’s Standing Committee?” he asked.
In a letter, Shelar stated: “The contractor company has embezzled Rs 437 crore from the Government of Maharashtra as the stones and materials required for filling in Phase I of the Coastal Road were picked up from other places without being licensed by the government. Who took this decision? Besides, the Rs 81.22 crore penalty imposed by the Maharashtra Police Transport Department for illegal and overloaded transport by the Coastal Road contractors while transporting the filler material was not yet paid? We also have information that 35,000 fraudulent rounds of stone material carrying vehicles have been shown to extract money by showing work on paper only,” reads the letter.
It further reads that the substandard materials supplied by the contractors have been used in this ambitious project. “The bogus materials also washed away in rain. Did the contractors get any tacit political support? With whose blessing was this whole thing started? Where has this money been diverted through by depriving the government of its revenue? The investigation through SIT will answer all these questions,” Shelar said.
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