Kalina residents plan protest against BMC official over delayed responses and Golden Gate scam | File Photo
Mumbai: Kalina residents are planning a massive protest against an assistant engineer of BMC’s H/East ward as the latter failed to reply to the residents’ complaint about the ‘Golden Gate’. The residents have also alleged that the assistant engineer has failed to provide information under the RTI Act in multiple instances.
The Free Press Journal had reported in November that the residents of Kalina had alleged discrepancies in the reconstruction work of a BMC Chowky as the corporation paid Rs 1.88 lakh for a sliding gate and requested the BMC Commissioner to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the reconstruction work. The residents’ demand from the ward officer to conduct an inquiry into the reconstruction work, that costed Rs 7.98 lakhs, has went unhead even after 10 months.
Voice of Kalina, an advance locality management (ALM) working on various civic issues as well as highlighting corruption in Kalina, had mocked the BMC for spending a huge amount on a simple entry gate for a BMC chowky and had named it the ‘Golden Gate’. VOK members had written a detailed grievance to Deepak Jadhav, the assistant engineer deptued in the H/East ward but failed to receive any reply from him even after months.
In October, VOK also wrote to the additional municipal commissioner of western suburbs and said, “The maintenance department head is conspicuously and purposefully remaining silent to our uncomfortable queries we sought for clarification but the waiting period for their response is far over. However, the A.E. Maintenance is obviously guilty and avoiding a reply.” Notably, this letter also did not reap any results.
As VOK’s multiple letters ranging from ward officer to the BMC commissioner went unheard, the residents are now planning a massive protest outside the H/East ward office over denial of information. In a letter written to the ward officer by Mumbai Citizens Forum on December 2, the residents of Kalina said that Jadhav has violated the guidelines of Right To Information Act.
“The very purpose of the RTI Act is being defeated by delay and deny technic of the PIO. Our repeated complaints against the officer to your good office has met with silence. We will be compelled to protest peacefully outside the ward office if no corrective measures are taken in resolving the grievance,” read the letter.
The residents alleged that Jadhav has not replied to complaints and queries written by the citizens in multiple issues. “We had submitted a detailed complaint regarding the Kalina Chowky reconstruction work. The Free Press Journal even reported about it but still the official has not replied to our queries. There are various matters pending at his end since long months and it becomes very difficult to take them forward. We cannot keep filing appeals in all the cases as it takes long time for us to receive any substantial information. Therefore, we only have one option left and that is to protest outside the ward office,” said Clarence Pinto, a member of VOK.
The Free Press Journal contacted Jadhav, who said, “We are taking action in the Kalina Chowky reconstruction work and will correct the wrong doings. It will take time since we have to check all the accounts but we ensure that we will recover the extra amount paid to the vendor.”
