HC seeks report on MMC polls

A division bench of Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice B N Srikrishna made the interim order amidst strong arguments put forward by the petitioners who claimed that they were receiving complaints of malpractices being conducted in the elections.

It was brought to the notice of the court that though the state government had issued a government resolution directing that the secretary of the health department Thomas Benjamin would oversee the elections, he in turn directed his juniors to oversee the elections. They on their turn appointed two others to serve as observers. In fact, the state had drawn up a roster of sorts on who would serve as an observer and when.

Justice Srikrishna then remarked, 8220;Couldn8217;t you have found somebody lower than that?8221; Kotwal then pointed out that the officers were planning to observe the elections sitting in their officers in Mantralaya. All of which was struck down by the division bench. Justice Srikrishna directed that the two officers deputed by the secretary would be the observers and would sit in the MMC headquarters to assess the situation and receive complaints if any. The duo would then have to file their report.

The FME had pointed out that many of the MMC members had received fake ballot papers, more ballot papers than necessary, envelopes without any ballot paper inside and some envelopes with superimposed address labels.

Nine members are elected to the 22-member board of the MMC, which is a self regulatory body of medical practitioners in the state. Electoral process for these elections began on April 30, 1999 and the last date for the MMC to receive the postal ballots is June 25, which has now been extended to July 12.

THE University of Mumbai today urged the Bombay High Court to dismiss the petition filed by senior Shiv Sena leader Vijay Loke against Pankaj Bhujbal and his father Chhagan Bhujbal, claiming that the admission application to the Institute of Distance Education IDE that was purported to be by Pankaj Bhujbal was not accepted.

In an affidavit, the University pointed out that in the year 1996, around 200 admission forms were suspected to be forged, and with false certificates from the graduating universities. The entire matter, the affidavit claimed, had been forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Department CID for further investigation. Since the petition bases itself on the fact that Pankaj Bhujbal obtained a certificate from the IDE after submitting false documents, the fact was that he was not admitted at all.

Claiming that the petitioners had only picked out one name from the entire list, the University claimed that the petition was politically motivated and did not deserve to be entertained.

However, counsel for Loke, pointed out the names given to the CID for investigation purposes did not contain Bhujbal junior8217;s name. He also argued that the list of colleges graduation certificates that were asked to be examined on suspicion of being false, did not contain Roha College, which pertained to Bhujbal8217;s case.

The petition that was being heard by the division bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia, has now been adjourned for a week, since the petitioners sought time to answer the affidavit of the University.

The Bombay High Court today admitted two petitions including a public interest petition filed by leader of the opposition Chhagan Bhujbal challenging the state government8217;s contract and the contractual terms given for widening the Thane-Bhiwandi bypass. Bhujbal8217;s petition claimed that the contract that was awarded without calling any bids would cost the public a sum of Rs 754.89 crore.

A division bench of the Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia while refusing to give any interim relief in the case, held that the matter could not be kept pending. A continuous final hearing for the disposal of the case is to begin from next week.

Chhagan Bhujbal, along with another contractor, Ajay Constructions have petitioned the Bombay High Court against the terms drawn up by the state, the Union of India and the contractors, Ideal Road Builders, wherein Rs 69.30 crores were to be awarded to Ideal on BOT build, operate, transfer terms for the widening of the Thane Bhiwandi bypass. Ideal, thus gets to levy a toll on the vehicles at a 20 per cent interest rate compounded monthy.

What is interesting is that Ideal Road Builders had been awarded a contract for the improvement and the resurfacing of the 23 km bypass lane at a cost of Rs 17 crore. With the company being given a concession period of seven years and eight months, it was allowed to levy a toll till August 2003. The toll is on at present.

When the state decided to widen the bypass, instead of calling for fresh tenders, it gave the contract to Ideal allowing it to construct the lanes at a cost of Rs 69.30 crore.

Bhujbal has opposed the contract, given unilaterally to Ideal. According to him, the state could have paid off the remaining amount that was to be collected by Ideal till 2003, and collect the amount from the tenderer who could have got the contract.

According to Bhujbal, the rate granted to Ideal for the widening of the bypas is Rs 3 crore per km, while the prevalent rates were Rs 2.35 crore. He also alleged that the contract terms were changed. So while Ideal was allowed to charge 20 per cent interest per annum on its earlier project, it was now allowed to charge 20 per cent compounded monthly that immediately raised the liability on the public to a whopping Rs 754.89 crore.