Mumbai: Govt offices, ministers owe crores to BMC in water bills

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray

An RTI activist has alleged that several government offices and ministers have defaulted on their water bills, stressing that the BMC has to recover over thousands of crores from over 4,000 defaulters.

According to Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh, many bungalows allotted to ministers are part of the defaulters' list. He has alleged that various ministers have not cleared water bills collectively worth Rs 24 lakh.

The activist said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's officials residences too have water 'arrears'. He said water charges of Rs 24,000 against Varsha bungalow are yet to be cleared, while Devgiri, the official residence of deputy CM Ajit Pawar, defaulted water bills of Rs 1,35,300.

However, the chief minister's office (CMO) dismissed the claims saying they were not based on facts. As per a report submitted by the BMC, the (bill) arrears of both 'Varsha' and 'Torna' bungalows of the CM are 'Nirank' (blank), the CMO said in a release.

"The office of the Water Works Department of the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation has given a report of outstanding in this regard. It clarifies the fact that the arrears of these two bungalows are non-existent," the release said.

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news