On Friday, a delegation of leaders from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Ashish Shelar, Ameet Satam and former corporators, Prabhakar Shinde, Vinod Mishra and Bhalchandra Shirsat inspected the continuing pre-monsoon desilting works in Mumbai.
Following the inspection, Shelar mentioned that hardly 25-30% of the challenge has been accomplished. However, the civic administration has claimed that 70-80% of desilting work has been accomplished. Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration said that it has achieved 78% of its goal at current and desilting is being carried out in a clear method.
“Desilting work at Gazdar Bandh nallah (Santacruz) started today with deployment of JCB and removal of piles of waste. Cleaning of drains at SNDT nullah also commenced recently, as one can see grasses and shrubs growing over the algae floating in the nullah. Therefore, we can asses that around 20-30% of desilting has been completed in general, while BMC claims that 70-80% of the task is complete,” mentioned Shelar.
“It appears that contractors are manipulating figures. Despite the administrator’s rule in BMC, we will ensure that whoever has been negligent will be held responsible,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, in an announcement, municipal commissioner and state-appointed administrator, Iqbal Singh Chahal, mentioned that to this point 7.68 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of silt has been faraway from drains and rivers in Mumbai, which is 78% of the goal. Chahal additionally mentioned that BMC has deployed further equipment and intends to realize the total goal of its pre-monsoon work earlier than May 31.
“The desilting in Mumbai is being carried out in a meticulous manner, and drains are being cleaned step by step. While some drains are already desilted, work is underway in certain locations. Therefore, the presence of silt in a few specific drains doesn’t imply that work has not been carried out there,” Chahal mentioned.
Chahal added that in their visits, it has been noticed that residents dispose their strong waste in drains, which ends up in formation of particles and floating materials. He mentioned that whereas that strong waste doesn’t qualify as silt, and desilting doesn’t point out elimination of floating strong waste comprising plastic and thermocol.
“The civic administration has not favoured any contractor. The tender process for desilting was conducted transparently, and work order is issued in the same way,” Chahal mentioned.