Will the higher authorities be probed? Aaditya Thackeray seeks answers on street furniture scam

Shiv Sena (UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday tweeted another letter written to the municipal commissioner on the alleged street furniture tender scam. Acknowledging that the government had ordered an enquiry into it, Thackeray asked if the ongoing probe into it is being done by senior BMC officials or if it is an external or legal probe. He asked if the DMC, involved in floating the tender, has been subjected to a departmental inquiry and if urban planners and designers, who gave inputs on rates, will be part of the probe.

Though Thackeray has addressed the letter to the commissioner, he has asked if the ‘highest authority’ in BMC, the administrator, will also be probed in the scam. After chief minister Eknath Shinde announced an inquiry into the Rs 263-crore tender for street furniture, BMC had set up a committee led by joint municipal commissioner (Vigilance) for the probe. Through the street furniture project, the civic body was aiming to install 13 types of street furniture, including benches, pole-mounted dustbins, bollards, and tree guards, to beautify the roads of Mumbai.The civic body had floated a Rs 263-crore tender for this work through its Central Purchase Department (CPD). Earlier, Aaditya Thackeray wrote to Governor Ramesh Bais, and sought a probe by the Lokayukta.