Mumbai: BMC’s claim of 67% desilting false, says Ashish Shelar

BJP city president Ashish Shelar has expressed displeasure over the progress of desilting work in the city and has claimed that only 25-30% work has been accomplished. He said that the BMC’s claim of having completed 67% work is false.

Shelar inspects Nullah cleaning work

Inspecting some of the nullah cleaning work in the western suburbs, Shelar complained that the nullah in Rahul Nagar in Chembur hasn’t been cleaned yet and the cleaning of Gazdar Bandh nullah started on Friday.

Shelar also inspected the work at Pawan Hans and SNDT nullahs, besides Irla nullah near Millennium Club, and Mogra and Meghwadi nullahs. He was accompanied by MLA Ameet Satam and former corporators Prabhakar Shinde, Bhalchandra Shirsat, Vinod Mishra, besides others.
Shelar said, “The BMC installed the JCB and tried to gauge the amount of sediment at Gazdar nullah where piles of silt have accumulated at the pumping station. I believe that the work at SNDT commenced only recently.” He said Mumbaikars have been hoping for a non-waterlogged city but Uddhav Thackeray’s party has been ignoring it for the past 25 years.

Contractors appointed for cleaning close to Thackeray, don't trust them: Shelar

“For the past few years, the BJP has taken up the task of inspecting all the drains along with the officials of BMC and its corporators. Inspection has revealed utter negligence. The contractors appointed for the works amounting to over Rs 280 crore are close to Thackeray. We Mumbaikars don’t trust them,” said Shelar, adding that even though there is an administrator in the BMC, everyone responsible for unsatisfactory work will be held responsible.

BMC, for its part, countered Shelar’s allegations and said that the pre-monsoon work is progressing satisfactorily and all information is available in the form of statistics, information, photographs and videos on the civic body’s website. Officials also said that the tender process for these works has been conducted in a transparent manner. 

The BMC said that citizens frequently dispose of waste in drains, leading to floating debris, and it would like to clarify that this waste does not indicate lack of silt removal.