BJP corners Shiv Sena over road scam

Mumbai: Bitterness between Shiv Sena and BJP over the recently fought BMC election is far from over. This was evident in Tuesday’s discussion in the assembly about the road scam where members of BJP were particularly aggressive in demanding constitution of a special investigation committee (SIT) to investigate the scam.

During question hour when NCP member Shashikant Shinde raised the issue of an enquiry into the scam, minister of state for urban development, Ranjit Patil, said, “Inquiry of road tenders till 2016 is going on. There are also complaints about contracts of roads being awarded to various blacklisted contractors. All this is under probe by the BMC commissioner.”

However, BJP members Yogesh Sagar, Ashish Shelar and Atul Bhatkhalkar raised objections. Mr Sagar even said, “The BMC commissioner is himself a member of the standing committee whose decisions are being probed. Therefore, there should be an independent inquiry committee to investigate the matter.”

Sensing that BJP was cornering Sena over BMC roads, both Congress and NCP threw their weight behind the issue with leader of the opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil questioning why the government was not forming an SIT to probe the issue.

Throughout the heated debate, Mr Patil maintained his stance and did not accept formation of a SIT. To placate the angry members however, he agreed that if the ongoing report wasn’t satisfactory, government could then think of forming a SIT.