Thanks to the blind eye turned by a section of officials some private firms and individuals who have been blacklisted for causing huge financial losses to the civic exchequer have floated shell firms to bag fresh contracts in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
Aimed at generating a revenue of around Rs 1.8 lakh per day, the MBMC had awarded annual contracts worth Rs 7 crore for the 2014-2015 fiscal to four private contractors for collecting daily fees from hawkers operating in the twin-city.
To procure official collection payment receipts, the contractors were supposed to pre-deposit slab-wise payments with the civic exchequer. However, the tax department which also handles responsibility of fee collection, mysteriously allowed three contractors Simran Enterprise, Ekvira and Abdul Khan, to saddle the MBMC with collective arrears of around Rs 3 crore even after the annual contract came to an end in March, 2015.
Moreover, the cheques furnished by the contractors towards remaining errors were dishonored by the banks in 2015 due to insufficient funds, prompting the legal wing to initiate proceedings under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
In response to a query raised by Congress corporator Anil Sawant, the civic chief assured to institute a probe into the matter and initiate recovery process by impounding immovable assets of the defaulters. Some contractors have allegedly floated shell firms to bid and bag the contracts in various departments of the MBMC.