Minister of state for urban development Ranjit Patil on Thursday told the Legislative Council that the state government may consider a CBI inquiry into the pothole repair issue. "Currently, an investigation is on. It is on the right track. If needed, we may consider the Opposition's demand for a CBI probe,: Patil said.
The Maharashtra government may ask the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation into the alleged Rs9,000-crore pothole filling scam.
Minister of state for urban development Ranjit Patil on Thursday told the Legislative Council that the state government may consider a CBI inquiry into the pothole repair issue. "Currently, an investigation is on. It is on the right track. If needed, we may consider the Opposition's demand for a CBI probe,: Patil said.
Congress leader Narayan Rane had demanded a CBI inquiry into the scam, alleging that in the last three years, corruption involving Rs9,000 crore has happened in the road and pothole-filling works, and the perpetrators are the ruling Shiv Sena and the BJP. However, the BMC has been showing only Rs14 crore corruption.
Rane claimed that there were huge irregularities in the road and pothole-filling works. "Substandard construction materials were used by the contractors and the government must break their syndicate. Ruling Sena-BJP leaders and BMC officials were hand in glove in this scam and that has to be exposed by the investigative agency," Rane said.
The minister said that before and after the monsoon, the civic body undertakes road repairing work in Mumbai on a large scale. After complaints, they checked the quality of 34 city roads and found it to be not good, Patil added.
"Road works are not audited and approved by the third party audit. In the ongoing case, contractors had claimed several road works on paper but the ground reality was quite different. So, in many cases the contractors made money without carrying out any work. Besides, BMC officials did not take any action despite knowing fully well what was going on," Patil said.
In the primary investigation, it was found that there were serious irregularities in the road work, the minister said, adding that an FIR was registered against BMC road contractors for their shoddy job.
"We have arrested Railcon director, suspended two BMC road department chief engineers and one executive engineer. In the second stage of investigation, another 200 roads will be inspected to check the quality of work.
We are committed to taking action against the unscrupulous contractors and BMC officials," Patil said.
Contractors in the dock
M/s RP S Infra projects, KR Construction, M/s Railcon Construction, RK Madhani &Company, M/s KR Madhani & Company, M/s Mahavir Roads & Infrastructure, J Kumar and KR Construction.
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