BMC's probe into Mumbai's 'corrupt' drain clean-up inconclusive

The inconclusive report of the probe committee constituted to investigate claims of corruption in nullah de-silting was released by the BMC on Wednesday. The report itself stated that the storm water drains department has not maintained records of silt transportation, quantity, way-bridge receipts, log sheets etc The committee has now demanded an extension of two months to probe the matter further.

After opposition corporators raised a storm over the alleged graft in BMC's nullah cleaning contracts given before monsoon, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had constituted a committee on June 22 headed by deputy commissioner Prakash Patil to probe the matter. The committee was supposed to investigate whether there were any irregularities in the nullah-cleaning contracts and was supposed to file a report by June 30. The said report was submitted on Wednesday where the committee concluded that the duration of the probe was too short and therefore demanded an extension of two months.

According to the interim report, the committee visited the six villages where the silt was supposed to be dumped. These include villages in Raigad and Thane districts. Unlike opposition claims, the committee did find silt there but it expressed its inability to measure the quantity. It has asked the BMC's storm water drains department to maintain a daily progress register, transport register, penalty register, instruction book, cement variation register, nullah sketches etc now onwards. It has also recommended manning the check post near the entrance of every dumping ground, geo-fencing the dumping ground, third party audits among other things.

The total amount of silt removed was 2,37,373 sq mts.