NAGPUR: Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B has formed a four-member committee headed by additional commissioner Ram Joshi to probe the Rs12 crore benches scam. The team will probe if there was any irregularity in procuring over 17,000 iron benches placed across the city.
The other members of the committee include the chief engineer, deputy municipal commissioner (administration), and deputy municipal commissioner (revenue).
TOI was the first to expose the scam on how NMC spent over Rs11.91 crore for installation of 17,562 benches (both concrete and iron) across the city in the last three years (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22).
Preliminary investigations revealed that the civic body had purchased each bench at a cost almost Rs3,000 over the market price. On average, NMC paid Rs7,060 for one bench against the market rate of around Rs4,000 (that too of good quality).
Officials from at least five departments, including garden, public works department, zonal offices, sports, and district planning and development committe, were allegedly involved in erecting the benches.
Apart from these five departments, even Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) had spent funds for installation of benches.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that at many places benches were installed by a particular department, while other departments too had shown the same spot in their project completion reports, thus gobbling up funds meant for development works, sources said.
In a few files, it was found that benches were installed, but the concerned department failed to provide the locations where these were erected.
This data was compiled by the superintending engineer’s office. Now, the committee, which was given 15 days to probe, will not only cross check the locations but also verify the bills and the amount spent in erecting benches.
