The committee submitted a final report to the civic chief in the first week of December, 2015.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday announced that it will crack down on 10 engineers and three supervisors from its Storm Water Drains Department for their involvement in a de-silting scam. Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta signed on the suggestions given by Rajiv Kuknoor, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, who headed the inquiry committee.
The committee submitted a final report to the civic chief in the first week of December, 2015.
On June 18 and 19, 2015, several parts of the city were flooded as contractors carried out sub-standard de-silting work, endangering the lives and property of residents, the report said. Moreover, contractors cheated the BMC by forging documents to maintain a record of trucks carrying silt from the city to dumping sites, as well as fake bills and challans. The contractors also committed several irregularities. Civic engineers and supervisors allegedly aided and abetted in the fraud. BMC Chief Vigilance Officer Uday Murudkar failed to monitor the irregularities, the report added.
While Murudkar spent time behind bars for his actions after the BMC initiated criminal proceedings against him, punishment announced for all 13 involved included demotions and cancellation of increments. Cash recovery will be made from retired civic employees involved in the scam, the report said. Sub-engineer Prashant Patel, who was on probation, did not appear for the inquiry, and hence his probation is to be terminated. Two assistant engineers Sanjeev Koli and Sudesh Gawli will be demoted to sub-engineers and three sub-engineers—Bhagwan Rane, Praful Vadnere and Naresh Pol—will be demoted to junior engineers. Two sub-engineers, Ramesh Patwardhan and Pradeep Patil, were just 10 days into their job when these irregularities were committed, hence one increment will be held permanently. Two sub-engineers, Rahul Parekh and Sambhaji Vachhav, will be brought down to the lowest level as they cannot be demoted, according to rules.
As far as the three supervisors are concerned, three increments will be held permanently for one supervisor, and the other two retired supervisors will be penalised with a fine of Rs 25,000 from their pensions. The inquiry report said at least 32 contractors and 14 civic officials, including the Chief Vigilance Officer, were involved in the scam worth Rs 280 crore, which was the contract cost. BMC had given out the city's de-silting contracts to 32 contractors for two years.
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