Malad tops city’s most corrupt BMC ward list ………GEETA DESAI
In the last nine months, seven officers have been caught from the civic body’s Building and Factory Department of the P/North ward where illegal construction is rampant
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) P/North ward comprising Malad is the most corrupt ward in the city. The obvious reason is the vast non-development zones in the area, which prove to be a goldmine for officers dealing with illegal constructions in this zone.
In the last nine months, the Anti-Corruption Department (ACB) has caught 12 officers from the 24 wards of the city and from that, six officials have been caught and suspended on charges of corruption from the P/North ward itself, while Sanjay Pandav, an assistant engineer from this department is facing a departmental inquiry for protecting film director and producer Guddu Dhanoa’s bungalow. All the officers caught in the P/North ward are from the Building and Factory Department. The cases in P/North ward include those in which officers are extorting money from a plot owner and demanding money from shop owners to protect illegal construction.
The P/North ward which comprises of areas like Malwani, Marve, Madh, Erangle is very lucrative for developers as well as for civic employees. There is rampant illegal construction in this area and officers in this zone have to avoid being lured by offers of bribes. The Malwani area is a very sensitive area where many slumlords are also connected to various political parties.
They seek the “blessings” of their leaders and carry on illegal constructions. The Madh-Marve-Erangle area is also a favourite among celebrities for constructing bungalows and on many occasions, they evade the law by bribing officers.
In the last 12 years, the number of cases in which municipal employees were trapped by the Anti-Corruption Bureau has gone up nearly ten-fold.
According to cases registered with the BMC’s Vigilance Department, in 1996, the number of cases was only two while a decade later, in 2006 the figure had gone upto 11, while in 2007 almost 29 officials were trapped by the ACB from the various department of all the 24 municipal wards.
In 2008, until now (September) 12 officials have been trapped by the ACB, from which six officers are from the P/North ward.
“The civic body’s image is tarnished due to a handful of cases,” said an officer from the Vigilance Department on condition of anonymity. “Once the ACB traps and arrests an employee and if he is behind bars for 24 hours, we have to suspend him immediately. The ACB then investigates even the disproportionate assets of that officer,” the officer said. On the issue, M V Sangle, additional municipal commissioner, said, “The civic authorities expect every employee to follow the rules. We have 1.20 lakh employees and expect them to be sincere.” The BMC’s P/North ward officer M M Kshirsagar was unavailable for comment.
The BMC’s P/North ward office in Malad