Members of the standing committee on Tuesday slammed the civic administration for allowing two of its consultants to set up their offices in municipal properties nearly free-of-cost. One of the properties is located between the prime location of Taj Lands End hotel and film star Shahrukh Khan's residence, 'Mannat'.
Who are the agencies involved?
The BMC has engaged two private agencies, Lea Associates South Asia Private Limited (LASAPL) and Suez Environment (SE), a Brazilian firm, for providing consultancy services to it for mobility plan and water distribution improvement programme works respectively.
What is the space allotted?
LASAPL has been allotted 3,081 sq ft at a municipal welfare centre located near Rizvi College along Carter Road in Bandra (W), while SE has been allowed to use space measuring 2,000 sq ft on property reserved for setting up a library and a dispensary.
How much have the agencies been charged?
The corporation has charged The LASAPL only Rs1 for using the civic facility for a period of 8 months, while the SE has been made available the space for 4 years without charging for it.
Corporatorspeak
Congress corporator from Bandra, Asif Zakaria pointed out, "If we go by the prevailing market rates, then the properties will fetch BMC rent of nearly Rs10 lakh per month. However, the BMC has allotted the properties to the consultants for free. Why this generosity towards them? We could have understood their case had the consultants given us discounts in the service charges. But that is not the case."
What does the civic body have to say?
Reacting to the objections raised by the members, additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said that the properties were allotted to the agencies following sanction form the municipal chief (Sitaram Kunte). This did not go down well with the members who termed the civic chief's approval as overpowering the committee's privilege. Subsequently, Srinivas announced to evict LASAPL from the BMC building immediately. "I do not have details of the offices occupied by Suez Environment. Hence, we will have to look into the issue first," he added.
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