Three days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) order, blacklisting all 24 contractors in the Rs 150-crore de-silting scam, was declared illegal by the Bombay High Court (HC), the civic body on Monday issued show-cause notices to four officials for failing to present its case well before the HC.
Notices were issued to Vaibhav Borkar (assistant engineer), Anil Jadhav (executive engineer, monitoring and registration cell), Vinod Mahadik (assistant law officer) and Aruna Sawala (deputy law officer). They have been given three days' time to reply.
The four belong to the law and the city engineer's department.
The BMC admitted that since its officials goofed up, tainted contractors got away easily with a stay order.
BMC chief Ajoy Mehta had told dna that action would be taken against officials. dna had reported on December 25 that the HC had stayed the civic body order.
"All the four officials failed to inform the BMC top brass about the case. While the city engineer's department did not follow proper procedure while blacklisting, the law department did not present the case well before the HC. In fact, no instructions were given to the lawyer.
"Neither was the BMC top brass informed about the order. That is the reason why the HC stayed the blacklisting order," a senior civic official said.
The HC nullified the BMC order saying that the contractors' version of the story was not heard.
Contractors had wanted Mehta to give them a hearing. "We made a request over a month ago. But we were not given any hearing. This is unfair. The BMC chief must call us for a hearing and listen to our views too. The action is not as per procedure and too harsh," said a contractor who didn't wish to be named.
The show-cause notices were issued following a report, sought by Mehta, on the status of the case and explanation from officials as to why they failed to put across the BMC's stand before the HC.
While staying the order, the HC had asked the BMC to file a reply. The next date of hearing is on January 19.
The blacklisting was ordered after a high-level probe into the de-silting scam nailed shoddy work by its contractors. The BMC had already blacklisted three contractors in September. According to officials, the blacklisting of 24 contractors was the biggest crackdown in the recent past.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh confirmed to dna that the notices have been issued.
On the blacklist
Hemang Construction, Indra Construction Co, DK Enterprise, SK Enterprises, Nandish Construction Co, TA Enterprises, Marsia Infratech, Arihant Corporation, Narendra Construction Co, RK & Brothers, Omkar Engineers, Chaudhary Construction Co, KRS & Jain Associates, Manisha Construction Co, Trinity Infraprojects, Mahiktes, KBA Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Popular Enterprise, Shrikviraj Infratech Pvt Ltd, Ambika Construction, Vishwashakti Construction, Aakash Engineering, RE Infra and Naresh Traders.
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