State govt can’t be mute spectator to BMC imprudence in road scam: HC

The Bombay high court on Tuesday came down heavily on the state government for its impassiveness in taking action in last year’s Rs353-crore BMC road scam, reminding it that the state possessed an “overall supervisory jurisdiction” and had “powers over the corporation.” A bench of justice VM Kanade and justice PR Bora said the state could not be a “mute spectator to what the corporation was doing” by simply stating the corporation functions autonomously.

The bench asked the state to file within four weeks, a report stating whether it extends any funding to the corporation and if so, then what “monitoring mechanism” does it have in place to check “how such money is spent.” The bench asked the state if it was even “aware of the condition of the roads and drains in the city.”

It also refused to transfer the probe into the road scam to the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) saying the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data “proved that such cases with the ACB have a zero percent conviction rate.” Instead, the bench asked the state police’s SIT and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to expedite their probe.

The directions came after the SIT and the EOW submitted their respective probe reports in sealed covers. They also told the court that while 24 people had already been arrested in the case, “further investigations were on.”

In a major boost to development in the state, the World Bank has agreed to invest more than one billion dollars (more than Rs7,000 crore) in the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III and the Climate Resilient Agriculture Project formulated for the drought-affected districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada. World Bank’s chief executive officer Kristalina Georgieva made the announcement on Tuesday. This is the highest investment by World Bank in any Indian state.

“The World Bank is committed to an investment of more than one billion dollars as direct financing and will help the state get additional funds through multi-lateral financing agencies and the private sector,” said Georgieva, after concluding a meeting with state government officials, including CM Devendra Fadnavis. She said the amount will be made available as a loan at the Libor Plus interest rate over a period of 18-20 years.

Earlier in the day, the World Bank CEO travelled in a train between Dadar and Churchgate and interacted with women commuters to understand the challenges of the city’s public transport system.