The past few weeks have brought into the public domain shocking details of what has come to be called the Mithi River scam in Mumbai. The centrality of this river, which runs for about 18 kilometres from the hills in the city’s north and drains out into the Arabian Sea carrying the city’s rainwater, had never diminished but was reinforced in the horrific floods on July 26, 2005. That day, the swollen and heavily silted river, with encroachments of all kinds on its banks, made it impossible for the more-than-usual rainwater to drain. Since then, cleaning the Mithi and preventing construction on its floodplains have been key aspects of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s efforts to prevent flooding. However, it transpires that a neat little scam was brewing for years about desilting and cleaning it.
The company contracted for the job had allegedly submitted fake bills to the BMC showing large volumes of work undertaken; it had forged the signatures of people who owned the land on which it dumped the silt; and bills that were possibly inflated and fabricated were produced to show the purchase of machinery for the work. The total cost of the desilting was Rs 1,000 crore, and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has so far unearthed a scam of around Rs 66 crore. The investigators believe that the ill-gotten money funded the trips of officials and others to exotic destinations. The address of this company was the same as that of actor-model Dino Morea and his brother Santino Morea, who have also been questioned. The key players are behind bars, but this is not enough.
This is appalling beyond belief and points to extreme apathy and callous and criminal indifference of the BMC to the plight of millions of Mumbaikars, who are forced to risk their lives and suffer disruptions during heavy rain and flooding—because the Mithi cannot carry enough of the rainwater out to the sea. It is appropriate that the shenanigans of the contractors and the Moreas are known to Mumbaikars, but it is not enough. The authorities must not only bring all the BMC officials, without whose connivance this scam would not have been possible, to book at the earliest but also ensure that every rupee of the scam is recovered from them. But what will the authorities do about the upmarket Bandra Kurla Complex, a large part of which sits on the Mithi's floodplains, planning?
This is, ultimately, also about urban governance. This is not just a scam about the Mithi cleaning but adds on to the corrupt and below-par ways in which roads are poorly laid, bridges are constructed or not constructed, and pavements are allowed to be encroached upon, which together make the daily rhythms of life painful and hazardous for millions of Mumbaikars. India’s financial capital, a city with an international image, must have better urban planning and governance.
