To ensure as less damage as possible to its image in the February 2017 civic elections, the Shiv Sena has shirked away from the responsibility of cleaning up drains in the city, especially after last year's bitter experience of the desilting scam and the city getting flooded in the first heavy rain.
For the first time in five years, Sena leaders in the BMC expressed their dissatisfaction over the desilting work being done in the city before monsoon.
Ironically, the Sena, despite being the ruling party in the BMC, has pushed the responsibility of ensuring that drains are cleaned before the monsoon on the civic administration. Sena leaders also alleged that the BJP was trying to pass on the buck to the party and that they were equal partners in the civic body and approved all proposals together in committee meetings.
On Monday, Sena leader Trushna Vishwasrao and chairman of the standing committee Yashodhar Phanse along with Sena corporators expressed that though desilting work was going on in the city it wasn't up to the mark.
"The work is very slow. We are constantly monitoring it in our area and will ensure that the desilting of drains is completed before rains. This year, the work has been delayed beyond all deadlines," said Vishwasrao.
Phanse said that each year latest by March all proposals are tabled and by April work starts but this year the proposals were tabled last week and that too without information on where the contractor will dump the silt. "Though we approved the proposal so that the city does not have to suffer, the civic administration will have to answer us where the silt will be dumped. Last year, contractors faked the sites and the bills," he added.
The Sena president has asked all corporators, leaders and even shakha pramukhs to look into the desilting work.
