Civic shame: 83 BMC officials land in dock for graft since 2008

ACB’s Assistant Commissioner of Police (administration) Pandurang Shinde said in more than 95 per cent of the cases,the employees were caught red-handed. “BMC invariably suspends those who are caught by us. While corruption is rampant across all levels,Class III and IV employees get trapped easily,” he said.

Of the total 83 people involved,52 are from Class III,which includes junior-most engineers,clerks etc,while 19 belong to Class IV,which includes peons,conservancy staff,labourers etc. In the past three-and-a-half years,only two Class I employees have been trapped — the most recent being Deputy Municipal Commissioner (removal of encroachment) Chandrashekhar Rokde. He was caught taking bribe of Rs 1 lakh on September 10.

The other was Uttara Mandgavkar,an accountant in the BMC’s head office,who was arrested. Eight Class II staffers were implicated during this period.

Shinde said once someone is caught and taken into police custody,the ACB’s role ends and then it is up to the BMC to either suspend or reinstate an employee as per the court’s order. As per the state government orders,any public servant caught by the ACB,who spends more than 48 hours in police custody,faces suspension.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (general administration) M Adtani said once a BMC employee is involved in such a case proper inquiry and investigations are carried out. “Those acquitted by the court are reinstated and the guilty are suspended. There are no two ways about it. We have suspended 77 employees since 2005,” he said. Of the four reinstated employees,two are Class III employees,one is a Class II staffer and the other is from Class IV.

ACB data also puts the police across the state at the top,with 349 cases in the same period in which 451 officials were involved.