The state government has decided to form a two-member committee to probe the missing files case in the BMC. The committee will submit its report within three months and accordingly action will be taken, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan assured.
A Right to Information (RTI) query has recently revealed that thousands of files in key BMC departments have been missing. The issue was raised in the state Legislative Assembly by MNS MLAs Mangesh Sangle and Bala Nandgaonkar. They demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.
Replying to this, the chief minister said, “A committee of additional chief secretary and an official of the secretary rank would be formed to probe the matter. The BMC has also filed complaints at four police stations — Agripada, Samata Nagar, Bandra and Pant Nagar — in this case. Based on the probe report and police inquiry, strict action will be taken against concerned civic officials and builders if they are at fault.”
According to him, 10,531 files have been found missing from the BMC, mostly from the building proposal department. Of them, 87 per cent files belong to the years before 1991, the year when the current development plan came into existence.
“It is a serious issue and there is a possibility of misappropriation in this. So far, the BMC has managed to reconstruct 744 files. We are also trying to approach architectural firms to retrieve the file maps,” said Mr Chavan.
The copies of files, along with the concerned department, are sent to the hydraulic department, assessment and collection department and the ward office. If the files at all four places are misplaced, then there is a strong possibility of malafide intention behind misplacing these files, he added.
According to Section 9 of the Maharashtra Public Record Act, there is a provision of five years imprisonment if found guilty in such cases.
However, the CM turned down the demand for CBI inquiry into the matter. “Only after the probe report, the accountability will be fixed, and then if required, the inquiry will be initiated,” he said.
Mr Nandgaonkar alleged that the BMC has suffered a loss of `1 lakh crore due to the missing files. Opposition leader Eknath Khadse demanded suspension of the BMC commissioner in this case.