Mumbai: The Saki Naka police have started investigating a multi-crore "pressure cooker" scam. This follows a complained filed by advocate Nikhil Kamble. According to the complaint, the BMC had purchased as many as 50,000 pressure of three litres capacity for distribution to poorer sections of society as a part of its scheme to help the urban poor.
However, instead of distributing the cookers to the needy, the BMC handed them over to the local MLA Dilip Lande of Shiv Sena (Shinde). Kamble alleged that the cookers were stored in the premises of Lande and they were given out to the poor as if they were freebies from him whereas it was the BMC which had purchased the cookers.
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Kamble said Lande was seeking re-election during the upcoming assembly elections and was using the BMC's property to woo voters. Kamble drew the attention of BMC officials to the alleged misuse of civic property by Lande, but there was no response since the MLA belongs to chief minister Eknath Shinde's party. Lande was unavailable for comment.
The complaint further alleges that the cookers were purchased by BMC at a price which was four times higher price than the market rate. Kamble has alleged corruption in the procurement of cookers.
Cookers Bought For More Than 4 Times The Cost
According to one of the BMC invoices accessed by the complainant, the corporation purchased 1,000 cookers from the Boraivali (E)-based Gurukrupa Enterprise at a cost of Rs. 24.98 lakhs which works to Rs 2,498 per cooker against the retail price of Rs 600.
On July 25, Kamble, who practises at the Bombay High Court, wrote to the BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar and other officials demanding that Lande, his party workers and the officials concerned be booked. He said the BMC had illegally handed over its property to Lande and the latter and his workers, in turn, distributed them even though they were not authorised to do so.
According to the complaint, the `L 'ward of the BMC had procured 50,000 cookers and instead of storing them in the civic godown they were illegally handed over to Lande who kept them in his premises before distribution.
A cooker with a capacity of three-litres is available at an average cost of Rs. 600 and can maximum go as high as Rs. 800, but the BMC has purchased it at the cost of almost Rs. 2,500. Apart from this, the local MLA has been distributing these cookers for almost a month by putting up hoardings which clearly promote himself and his party. "This is misappropriation of municipal property” said Kamble, adding that the cookers have been stored in private godowns of Chandivali instead of BMC’s store rooms.
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Kamble told the FPJ that even after he pointed to the illegality, the BMC failed to take action. It was only after his complaint reached the police commissioner that matters started moving and a probe was ordered.
The investigation officer assistant inspector Hindurao Chaudhari said he had summoned the assistant municipal commissioner Dhanaji Hirlekar to record his statement, but the latter pleaded for time "since he was busy with the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign."
Hirlekar told the FPJ on Monday “The MLA is a public representative and we are getting the cookers distributed through him. His banners look like it is his and his party’s initiative but we can not do anything about the banners. However, I can confirm that the cookers are in the BMC’s possession safely stored in our municipal store,” he added.
