Book CM Devendra Fadnavis for not acting against toll collector: Activists to ACB

Mumbai: Four activists have submitted a complaint to the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Cabinet minister Eknath Shinde and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation’s (MSRDC) vice-chairman Radheshyam Mopalwar for their alleged failure to revoke the right of the Mumbai-Pune expressway toll contractor, IRB, to collect toll on it even though it had by 2016 collected the projected toll income — around Rs 2,800 crore — that was to be collected by 2019. The activists have added that the alleged failure to act against the toll collector resulted in an undue gain to the contractor operating tollbooths.

Toll activists Pravin Wategoankar, Srinivas Ghanekar, Vivek Velankar and Sanjay Shirodkar on Wednesday filed a complain with the ACB stating that Mr Fadnavis, Mr Shinde and Mr Mopalwar be booked under section 13 (2) of the Prevention of the Corruption Act for allegedly committing criminal misconduct by not revoking the contract of the expressway toll collector IRB despite it having collected the said target in 2016 itself. The complaint states, “In a notice dated January 18, 2017, we had brought to the attention of the authorities that against an upfront payment of Rs 918 crore the contractor for the said project had already collected about Rs 2,880 crore as of November 2016. This was about Rs 11 crore more than the income he was expected to earn from toll collection as per the contracted cash flow.”