One-up on Sena: BJP exposes more scams
In yet another example of the divide between Shiv Sena and its alliance partner BJP, Ashish Shelar, president of BJP's Mumbai unit published some more details of the tanker mafia scam exposed by BJP's Member of Parliament, Kirit Somaiya on Wednesday. Shelar claimed that the nature of the scam is such that a high-ranking person in the civic body has to be involved for it to be successful. He said that the BJP will release these names 'when the time comes'.
On being asked how the Sena can be responsible for everything that goes wrong, and the BJP is responsible for exposing these scams, even though these parties are coalition partners, Shelar said, "I have not pointed any fingers at Sena. This is not political. The BJP only serves the people who elect it. We are acting with their interests at heart."
On the other hand, Shelar also said, "If they want to take credit for what has been achieved, they will have to take the discredit for what they failed to achieve."
Shelar pointed to a water tanker mafia scam in the civic body, alleging that the BMC loses close to 5 lakh litres of treated clean drinking water per day, apart from the water its distributes legally through registered water tankers. Shelar alleged that clean water is being stolen and sold at rates 300 per cent higher than BMC mandated cost of water, and this has been going on for several years now.
Shelar met Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta in this regard. He said, "The commissioner has directed officials to collect information, causes and reasons, and decide the future course of action. We have given the administration one month's time to find out who is responsible for the scam, otherwise the BJP will lodge a complaint of forgery against those causing loss of revenue to the BMC."
Moreover, the BJP has also committed to working toward abolishing the TDLR (Transport Deficiency Loss Recovery) charged by BEST on electricity bills. Shelar said he met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis who has assured that the TDLR will be abolished. This will save several rupees on per unit billing of BEST customers.