`Ward officer’s reinstatement hasty’

While Welling has been let off and the contractor R P Traders has gone unpunished, deputy engineer A P Dhivar, junior engineer S M Deshpande and peons Vilas Jadhav and Gangashram Singh have been suspended. While many consider the decision to reinstate `hasty’, others feel that Welling should have been allowed to resume only after a full-fledged inquiry.

Sources said it was not the first time that Welling has got into trouble. In the early eighties, he was chargesheeted in five cases of alleged violation of floor space index (FSI) regulations. The casesare still pending.

In a prominent case in 1984, as assistant engineer, Welling was allegedly involved in granting extra FSI to smuggler-turned-builder Yusuf Patel. The Anti Corruption Bureau had found that records in the buildings proposal department were manipulated, and forged area certificates were issued to certain builders enhancing the area of plot no 224 in Byculla from 1,957 square yards to 2,957 square yards. Patel owns Zia Apartments, which stands on this plot. On August 7, 1984, the standing committee gave the ACB the go-ahead to prosecute 12 civic employees on charges of criminal conspiracy. Among the culprits, the bureau listed Welling, Bombay Survey and Land Records superintendent Prabhakar Haval and his officers, Patel and the civic engineers. The then municipal commissioner Jamshed Kanga had agreed that there was a prima facie case for prosecution.

Welling was also chargesheeted in four other cases involving Kedy Apartments at Byculla, Balwas Co-operative Housing Society at Tardeo, RubyTerrace at Malabar Hill and Om Chambers at Kemp’s Corner. While officers of the land survey department headed by Haval (an ACB’s raid on his home recovered assets worth Rs 35 lakh) fudged with figures, BMC engineers, including Welling, acceded to their `friendly’ requests for permission without objections.

Regarding Welling’s latest case, Additional Municipal Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said, “It was a clear-cut case of fraud. The repair work mainly consisted of constructing a boundary wall and laying floor-tiles. While the estimates on one paper showed Rs 10 lakh, another sheet with similar details pegged it at Rs 47 lakh.” Gaikwad felt that Welling should have re-checked the proposal before forwarding it. He claimed to have learnt of Welling’s reinstatement only through newspapers. Welling refused to comment, saying he had made a written representation to the BMC chief. He also declined to comment on the cases against him, saying they were `sub judice.’

Said Gokhale, Welling had attached a copy of acomplaint made to the Dadar police on February 28, 1998, against his staffers. “Welling had inadvertently signed the papers. When he noticed it, he reported to the police. Our inquiry officer had failed to notice this complaint.” He denied knowledge of Welling’s antecedents, saying, “Welling is a good officer. I was satisfied with the evidence. Just because something happened in the 80s, I am not going to drag that matter into the 90s.”