Mumbai Civic Body Faces Probe Over Alleged Irregularities Of 12,000 Crores

Maharashtra government on Monday set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) Committee to inquire into the alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 12,024 crores in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the past few years.

The committee comprises the Joint Commissioner Of Police, Mumbai and two senior officers.

This comes after The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India pointed out irregularities worth Rs 12,024 Crores in the expenses incurred by the BMC between November 2019 and October 2022.

Notably, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Amit Satam had also made a formal complaint with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde demanding an SIT probe into the matter.

Earlier in March this year, State Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra Assembly tabled a CAG report on this matter.

Many irregularities were mentioned by the CAG in the report.

Following this, Mr Fadnavis placed some issues of the report in the House.

"The administration of the municipality is completely opaque and corrupt. This report is only about the work of Rs 12,000 crores but the whole work will reveal more shocking things," he alleged.

In the report tabled in the House, it was stated that apart from irregularities during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was found in the inquiry that 20 works were awarded without tender in two separate departments.

Following Mr Fadnavis' comments, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray had said that the Maharashtra government should conduct a CAG inquiry in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur, and Pune municipalities.

Earlier in February, BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya had hit out at BMC and said he was exposing BMC's "COVID ki KAMAI". He also alleged corruption in procuring Remdisivir injections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)