Mumbai: Mumbai civic body faces fresh scrutiny ahead of the monsoon after advocate Rafiq Gori alleged a multi-crore fake desilting scam in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s P North ward, claiming construction debris from private sites was being shown as nullah cleaning material. The complaint, filed with Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, alleges a nexus involving contractors, civic officials, private builders and transport operators, with public money being siphoned off through manipulated records and false desilting claims.
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Construction debris allegedly shown as drain sludge
According to the complaint, instead of carrying out actual desilting operations, debris from private construction sites in Goregaon West and Lokhandwala, Andheri West, was allegedly loaded into dumpers, transported to weighbridges and falsely recorded as sludge removed from drains.
Gori alleged that two major developers, one based in Goregaon West and another in Lokhandwala, supplied the debris. He further claimed that debris generated from roadside strip excavation and under-construction roadwork near Mindspace was also shown as drain sludge.
Mid-day contacted the joint municipal commissioner of vigilance, the chief engineer of the stormwater drains department and the ward officer of P North, seeking their response. No reply had been received by press time.
Dumpers tracked, records allegedly manipulated
Gori told Mid-day that he personally verified the alleged fraud after receiving information from local sources. He said he tracked nearly eight dumpers that were allegedly part of the contractor’s desilting fleet, with several vehicles arriving near the back road behind Ijmima Complex, where drain waste was supposedly being loaded.
According to Gori, each dumper was linked to a log sheet and GPS tracking system. He claimed that when a vehicle reached the designated spot, its GPS was activated, after which the vehicle was weighed and a BMC employee signed a log sheet carrying the civic body’s official seal.
Gori alleged that the system was manipulated to create fake records of desilting activity. At the Ijmima Complex site, he claimed empty dumpers were photographed as proof of arrival, while an excavator was used only to create the appearance of loading drain sludge for photographs. He alleged that no actual silt was put into the vehicle.
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Gori claimed he has video and photographic evidence documenting the operation. He alleged that after leaving the site empty, one dumper travelled to a private builder’s project in Lokhandwala, entered empty and later exited loaded with construction debris. The debris-loaded vehicle then allegedly travelled through Link Road towards a weighbridge in Dahisar, where the material was recorded as nullah sludge.
The complaint points to what Gori described as a systemic nexus between contractors and civic officials. He alleged that supervising officers responsible for physical inspection and verification ignored the fraud, allowing fake desilting records, manipulated weighbridge entries, GPS logs and inflated bills to pass unchecked.
Gori said he has sought details through RTI applications and submitted complaints to senior BMC officials, demanding immediate action. He said more than two weeks had passed without a reply and warned that he would move court by filing a writ petition if no action was taken. He also said he would request the court to order the formation of a Special Investigation Team under judicial supervision to investigate the alleged scam.
The complainant has called for an independent inquiry into the desilting tender, suspension of contractor payments, audit of GPS data, weighbridge records and billing documents, and blacklisting of the contractor.
