5 corporators disqualified for furnishing fake caste certificates owe BMC Rs 12 lakh
BMC Headquarters. Picture Courtesy: Panoramio
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is yet to recover Rs 12 lakh in dues from five corporators who were disqualified for furnishing fake caste certificates, a Right To Information (RTI) query has revealed.
Prior to this, another RTI query had revealed that 16 corporators were disqualified in the last two terms (from 2007 to 2017) for producing wrong credentials, primarily false caste certificates.
Activist Anil Galgali, who had filed the RTI query, has found out that five of these 16 disqualified corporators have not returned the emoluments and other allowances and benefits received from the civic body. Once disqualified, corporators need to return the emoluments, allowances and other benefits received in the official capacity.
In his query, Galgali had sought details about action taken against the disqualified corporators who had not paid their dues, if any. The BMC, in their response, furnished copies of notices sent to five disqualified corporators.
The corporators, Lalji Yadav, Fatima Anjum, Anusha Kondam, Bhavna Jobanputra and Ishaq Shaikh, were all disqualified by the court on the grounds of furnishing fake caste certificates.
“The total sum of dues from all five corporators is Rs 11.98 lakh. Lalji Yadav owes Rs 7,439, Fatima Anjum owes Rs 45,388, Anusha Kondam owes Rs 3,20,681, Bhavana Jobanputra Rs 3,65,428 and Ishak Shaikh Rs 4,59,230,” Galgali said, citing documents received under RTI.
Recovering these dues was primarily responsibility of the secretary of the corporation, he said.
“Instead of waiting for action by collector, Municipal Secretary’s office must put up information of these erring ex-members on BMC website and also display it across all their offices,” he added.
When contacted, a senior official from the civic body told PTI, “It is not true that we did not do anything to recover the expenses incurred on them. We sent several notices, but they have turned non-cooperative. We have also asked the collectors to recover the dues.”
With PTI inputs
