Congress MLA demands SIT probe into ‘fudged’ garbage lifting records

Congress party legislator Aslam Shaikh (Malad constituency) has written a letter to the civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta recently alleging fake bills being issued by contractors for providing transport vehicles. They manipulate the number of times garbage is dumped at various dumping grounds. Mehta has initiated a probe to inquire into these allegations.

The inquiry will be headed by the supervision of chief engineer, vigilance department. However, Shaikh is unhappy with the inquiry initiated headed by the chief engineer who he says is responsible for the whole scam. “How can a chief engineer of the vigilance department be appointed for conducting the probe, when he is only in charge of clearing the bills?” questioned the decision.

“Mehta is trying to save his officers. We demand that the inquiry should be under the supervision of the Additional Municipal Commissioner (AMC),” he emphasised. “Also, a Special Investigation Team should be appointed and I will place this demand in the monsoon Assembly session,” he further added.

Shaikh’s letter to the commissioner states, “All trucks carrying garbage from different parts of the city submitted documents claiming the vehicles had shown the same weight was being carried despite being checked on different dates by the various BMC certified weighing scales. Moreover, they have manipulated showing a higher number of trips made by the dumper carriers.”

Shaikh said, “The vehicle records show multiple trips made starting from a particular area to the dumping grounds, even though the garbage remains uncollected from those areas for a number of days. The records also show most vehicles make several trips to the dumping grounds. If that is the case, then the city would have been garbage free by now, which is not the case.”

Mehta has instructed the officer to provide a detailed report of the investigations done and submit the report within 15 days.

All trucks carrying garbage from different parts of the city submitted documents claiming the vehicles had the same weight