A year after Mumbai company supplied sonar cameras to find drowned victims, state is yet to pay for the gadgets
Local MLA Bharat Gogawale and Thane Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde (in white) also went on the rescue boat along with the two company officials operating the gadgets (holding the blue tarpaulin)
After the Mahad bridge collapse last year, it was a Mumbai company that had supplied three sonar cameras worth R4.5 lakh to find victims who had drowned in Savitri river. And yet, the same company is now drowning in losses as the government is yet pay for the gadgets or return them.
Rescuers attach a sonar camera to the raft before heading out into the river Savitri. File pics
On August 2, 2016, the bridge collapse led to at least 26 people drowning in river Savitri. Torrential rains and choppy waters made it hard for rescue divers to look for survivors and bodies. That’s when Thane Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde and local MLA Bharat Gogawale came to the rescue, bringing three sonar cameras to help the rescue efforts. The Shiv Sena leaders claimed that they had spent R10 lakh on the advanced gadgets (Garmin echo-sounder), to ensure that as many lives as possible could be saved.
No payment
A year later, it turns out that not only did the politicians inflate the price of the cameras to twice their actual value — Rs 1.5 lakh per camera, which comes up to Rs 4.5 lakh for three — but they never paid the Mumbai-based company, GPS India Networks, which supplied the devices. The company’s officials said they neither received any payment nor have the cameras been returned, despite regular follow-up with the government and with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which continues to use two of the cameras.
On August 5, 2016, it was on behalf of Eknath Shinde that the company was approached by Prakash Chavan, a surveyor with the Maharashtra Maritime Board. “We were asked to visit Mantralaya to give a demo to CM Devendra Fadnavis, but since he was not available, we were asked to go to Mahad immediately,” recalled an official from GPS India Networks.
‘Can’t resell used cameras’
“They assured that they would purchase the cameras. We trusted the government and took three new cameras to Mahad, costing R4.5 lakh,” the company representative added. Once the camera is installed on a boat, it cannot be reused without damaging the boat. Even then, the used camera will have no resale value.
After nearly a year of following up with the authorities, the Coast Guard handed over one camera to the Mahad Rural police a few months ago. The company has been asked to take the device back, but the officials said, “What is the use of doing this now? We were assured that the government would buy the cameras. We also contacted Sushma Satpute, the sub-divisional officer in Mahad, but she claimed that the cameras were not useful for them, as no such disaster will happen again. We cannot resell them once they have been used.”
The other side
Prakash Chavan, surveyor from the Maharashtra Maritime Board, who had introduced minister Shinde to the company, said, “I was contacted by Shinde’s personal assistant, who asked me about the cameras, so I introduced both parties. During the crisis, saving lives was the priority. I don’t know about what deal they made.”
Anupam Shrivastav, NDRF commandant in Pune, who was at the Mahad rescue operation, confirmed that they are still using two cameras. He said, “If they want their cameras back, we can return them. We told them that we want to buy it, but received no response from the company. The cameras can be used only when the flow of water is high and the water is muddy.”
Despite repeated attempts to contact Shinde and Gogawale, neither of them was available for comment.
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