Politicians' aides land on Cambata payrolls

Mumbai: Even as 3,000-odd permanent and temporary employees of Cambata Aviation have not been paid their long-pending dues, salary records of the beleaguered firm allegedly show that house aides, drivers and workers of several politicians like Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and Congress MLA Nitesh Rane, among others, were on their payrolls.

The salary records of Cambata Aviation, which were presented by social activist Anjali Damania, reveal that Uddhav Thackeray’s driver and house aide are seen on payroll of the firm. Interestingly, a house aide of Raj Thackeray also received money from Cambata.

Ms Damania came up with the documents after she took the issue of Cambata worker's pending salaries with the company. The documents suggest seven people from Matoshree, Uddhav Thackeray's residence at Bandra; 15 people from Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, Sena’s labour union; two Raj Thackeray aides; seven persons from Mr Rane’s Samarth Kamgar Sena and 17 persons close to underworld don Arun Gawli have been given salaries over the years from Cambata Aviation.

Documents revealed that persons named Chandrakant Tandel, Santosh Tawde and Vinod Thakur are mentioned as drivers at Matoshree and they received money from Cambata.

Terming this as corruption by the Sena chief, Ms Damania said, “This is just one of the many bribes that were given by Cambata to Thackeray.”

The amount of money due to the 2,700 permanent and almost 900 non-permanent workers of Cambata Aviation since August 2016 is '109 crore and in the full and final settlement it could cross '200 crore. “In a way, Shiv Sena, a party that thrived on workers’ support for years in the city, has been betraying Cambata workers for long,” said Ms Damania.

Saying that the findings reflected a mutual agreement between Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and Cambata, Vinayak Raut, Shiv Sena MP and member of Kamgar Sena’s Cambata unit said, “Now, as Cambata has stopped paying its employees, the same thing is happening with the people at Matoshree.”

Senior MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande, on the other hand, denied any knowledge of the matter. “I am not completely aware about the matter. Such issues keep coming ahead of the elections. We need to check it out after the elections,” he said.

Mr Rane said Cambata employees who were affiliated with Samarth Kamgar Sanghatana used to get their salaries, as is their right. “They are just affiliated with our union. They are not our house aides, like the people in Matoshree,” the MLA said.

Albert Cambata, one of the owners of Cambata, said, “My brother Nelson and his management team has blocked me from taking any decisions at Cambata.”

The Asian Age contacted Nelson Cambata, who is in USA right now, but did not receive a reply at the time of going to press.

Meanwhile, CM Devendra Fadnavis lambasted Sena over the issue in a speech at Sakinaka, Andheri on Tuesday. He alleged that Sena leaders had made a ‘settlement’ with the Cambata management to get the salaries of their house aides.