Petition seeks accountability of BMC auction

Mumbai: A petitioner has sought a stay on BMC’s auction on seized goods from hawkers on the ground that the BMC had not been conducting the auction properly and causing a huge loss to the corporation.

Based on an RTI reply, the petitioner found that from 2010-2017 while the BMC had put up seized goods for auction worth Rs 459 crore, the actual auction in all the years yielded only Rs 22 crore.

According to the petition filed by Syed Haider Imam, a resident of Andheri, through senior advocate Khaiyam Shaikh, while the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act prescribes rules against illegal hawking and confiscation of goods from such hawkers, the rules do not enumerate the procedure for auctioning of the unclaimed goods and articles.

According to Mr Shaikh, the senior inspectors of licences of individual wards do not follow any procedure for auctioning goods and conduct auctions by issuing notices, but do not advertise for the same. The goods are sold as unclaimed goods as a result of which the civic body was facing huge revenue losses.

The bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Riyaz Chagla after hearing the submissions allowed the petition to be posted for hearing by July-end.     

The petition has further referred to an RTI response from the BMC pertaining to sale of confiscated goods between 2010 and 2017. The reply shows that while goods worth Rs 459.98 crore were seized from unauthorised hawkers, the goods seized from them were sold at Rs 22.28 crore only, resulting in a loss of Rs 437.69 crore to the civic kitty.

The petition has sought the framing of guidelines for the auction as well as staying further auctioning of seized goods till the time a proper framework is not in place. The petition also prays for directions to set up a committee to investigate into the corruption in conducting such auctions till now at local ward levels.