As various billing scams are coming from MSEDCL, now again another scam has come to the fore. A whistleblower has accused some company executives of setting up proxy women's self-help groups to earn billions of rupees in commissions. Savings groups get 20 percent commission for collecting current bills and 30 percent for recovery of arrears. The whistleblower alleges that some senior officials at MSEDCL's headquarters were involved.
MSEDCL Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Singhal said that if any specific complaint is received, the guilty officers will be investigated and action will be taken against them, while Executive Director (Billing) Yogesh Gadkari denied the allegations. The state government had decided to give a commission to SHGs. Self-help groups are appointed locally and therefore complaints should be lodged at the local level, he said.
The whistleblower complaint cites examples of two women's self-help groups. The Shiv Kripa Mahila Bachat Group registered in the Palghar district collected Rs 22.57 crore and earned a commission of Rs 4.86 crore. Notably, the local women's self-help group collected Rs 14.37 crore from outside the district. Similarly, SGDSS Mahila Bachat Group registered in Solapur district has collected Rs 3.81 crore, out of which Rs 2.87 crore has been collected from outside the district.
The complaint contains evidence of collusion between a self-help group and a senior company official. When the Chief Engineer of Nashik Zone temporarily deactivated all the SHGs in his area, the bills in Nashik started being collected from the Palghar based groups. The Department of Corporate Finance had advised the CMD to reduce the commission of SHGs to 10 percent, But no action has been taken yet.