DOUBLE DOWN ON CORRUPTION

DEVENDRA FADNAVIS HAS SAID IN CLEAR WORDS THAT THERE ARE MANY PROJECTS WHICH NEED A DETAILED INVESTIGATION, BUT THESE INVESTIGATIONS CANNOT GO ON FOR A LONG TIME AND CANNOT BE A FARCE

- VARUN SINGH

What looks like a major blow to the Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena, the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on August 24 announced that a detailed and timebound investigation shall be carried out in various alleged scams that took place in the last 2.5 years regarding projects carried out by the BMC. Three most important investigations, firstly related to COVID–19 centre scam, secondly the road scam and lastly an investigation in the cycle track project.

The cycle track project was the pet project of Aaditya Thackeray, which ran into several controversies and Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique raised the matter in the house to which Fadnavis assured that an investigation in this regard will be carried out. Siddique represents the Bandra east constituency in the Maharashtra Assembly, Bandra east houses Matoshree, the residence of the Thackerays.

While talking about the alleged scams that took place while awarding tenders during the COVID–19 pandemic, where some employees of the BMC were even named, Fadnavis said, “Employees of Municipal Corporation opened companies and were even awarded tenders during the pandemic. This needs to be investigated not by BMC, but by an officer from the Urban Development department and this investigation has to be carried out in a time bound manner.”