Nagpur: The year 2021 witnessed the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) grabbing headlines for many wrong reasons. The civic body found itself on a sticky wicket as one or another shabby affair got exposed during the year.
Stationery scam:
At the fag end of the year, the NMC was rocked by stationery scam or bogus contract scam. Investigations revealed involvement of six officials and five firms in the Rs 67 lakh stationery scam.
Further investigations found that the list of bogus contracts in NMC is much longer. 90 more bogus contracts worth Rs 1.4 crore related to the private contractor of the Health Department, who was earlier found to have prepared 41 bogus contracts, were unearthed. Suspicious transactions worth around Rs 90 lakh were also detected in the Solid Waste Management Department. The total worth of the scam swelled to over Rs 4 crore. Two more NMC’s departments — Library and Birth & Death Registration Departments – have come under scanner.
The fallout of the stationery scam is the arrest of NMC’s Accounts Officer Rajesh Meshram by Sadar police. Meshram is the senior-most official after Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vijay Kolhe in NMC’s Accounts and Finance Department. With Meshram, total arrests till date are five. Contractor Padmakar ‘Kolba’ Sakode, his nephew Atul, Auditor of Accounts and Finance Department Mohammed Ahmed, and senior clerk of General Administration Department (GAD) Mohan Padwanshi were arrested earlier. Hard disks of computers and CCTV footage from Accounts and Finance Department and Store Room have been seized.
The Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vijay Kolhe and Assistant Commissioner of GAD Mahesh Dhamecha are also facing the Departmental Enquiry in the scam. NMC started DE against Dhamecha for sharing his user ID and password with Padwanshi, who misused it to approve bills of bogus contracts of Sakode’s firms.
Covid-19 funds scam:
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Corporator Abha Pande exposed the alleged Rs 1.50 crore scam regarding funds received from Central and State Government for purchase of medical equipment and other logistics for treatment of Covid-19 patients in Nagpur. The documents obtained by her showed the NMC paid over Rs 11,990 each for an infrared thermometer from one firm while it procured similar equipment for Rs 1680 a piece. The NMC purchased pulse oximeters for Rs 5000, Rs 1445, Rs 1792, and Rs 2400 each though it could procure it for Rs 595 only, Pande alleged. Pande claimed irregularities in NMC’s Health Department while spending money received under State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and National Health Mission (NHM).
Following NCP Corporator Abha Pande’s allegations of Covid scam in NMC, the Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari constituted a 3-member committee to probe the irregularities in purchase of various materials for Covid-19 management by the civic body.
Property Tax scam:
A tax reduction scam in the Property Tax Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation was exposed by MLC and former Mayor Pravin Datke during the General Body Meeting of the civic body in March this year. The scam was being perpetrated by NMC employees, who would reduce property tax in Dhantoli and Hanuman Nagar among other zones in the city. A complaint with the Cyber Cell of city police was registered. Two employees of Tax Departments from Gandhibagh and Hanuman Nagar Zones – Sanjay Khadgi and Gaurishankar Rahate were suspended.
According to Datke, Khadgi’s login and password was used to reduce Rs 2.30 lakh Property Tax of a commercial establishment under Dhantoli Zone to Rs 70,000. Surprisingly, Khadgi was posted in Gandhibagh Zone. The other suspended employee, Rahate, too was involved in a similar scam, said Datke. Similar misappropriation was also unearthed in Dharampeth and Laxmi Nagar zones through user IDs and passwords of employees of other zones.
Pothole riddled roads:
The NMC also found itself in a tight spot as citizens bombarded the civic body with complaints of bad roads in Nagpur. Most of the tar roads in the city were in poor condition. The tar roads riddled with potholes showed the Second Capital in poor light. Data revealed that nearly two-thirds of the road length in the city was in bad shape. Left-red-faced with the poor condition of city roads, Nagpur Municipal Corporation approved diversion of Rs 36.50 crore from other Heads in the civic budget, for road repairs and for streamlining solid waste management.
Delivery of 40 e-buses in limbo:
The NMC was left furious as the Hyderabad-based firm — Evey Trans Pvt Ltd – failed to deliver 40 electric buses to the civic body even after an ultimatum. The company should have delivered the first lot of 25 e-buses by September 20 as per Letter of Acceptance ((LOA). The second lot of 15 e-buses was supposed to be delivered by November 19. But the delivery of the e-buses was in limbo as there is no sight of the buses running on Nagpur roads even by the December end.
Even an ultimatum issued to the firm did not work. The NMC, in the ultimatum, had warned the company that it will start levying 0.1% fine per day against its performance guarantee of Rs 1.68 crore adding, the civic body will not grant any extension for delivery of the e-buses. But the things stand as it is. No delivery of a single e-bus till to date by the company.
People’s voice remained silent as 82 Corporators did not raise a single issue:
Even as the term of current House of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is coming to an end early next year, over 50%, or say, 82 Corporators did not raise a single question in the past four and a half years. The People’s Representatives, also called “People’s Voice” remained silent all these years and performed poorly in terms of addressing citizens’ issues and raising their questions in General Body Meetings. The 82 City Fathers, as the Corporators are called, maintained ‘Radio Silence’ in the 151-member House and thus betrayed the people who elected them for five years in the hope of resolving their civic problems.
Now, NMC House to have 156 Corporators, a rise of five seats:
With the recent decision of the State Cabinet to increase the seats of elected Corporators, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) House strength will rise to 156 Corporators from the present 151, a rise of five seats. However, there is no change in nominated members, who would continue to be 5 only. Earlier, the minimum number of Corporators in a Municipal Corporation was 65 and the maximum 175. But in view of manifold increase in the population of cities and towns, and the need to expedite development works, the State Cabinet has increased the minimum number of Corporators to 17% from 65 earlier to 76. Now the number of wards in NMC House would go up to 52. Similarly now there will be uniform representation in each Prabhag, each having three corporators as total 156 members are to be elected to the new House. The elections to NMC are likely to be held sometime in the last week of January or first week of February if the Covid-19 situation improves.
The NMC, otherwise, was in the limelight for many other shabby affairs. With the elections to the civic body scheduled next year, the citizens could hope for better people’s representatives and better civic amenities.
