Uddhav Thackeray Targets Civic Body Chief Over ‘administrative Scams’

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday asked why the government was not acting against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal over alleged scams in the civic body.

Speaking at a gathering of party workers in neighbouring Raigad district, he slammed the BJP-led Union government for unfairly targeting his party leaders over alleged financial irregularities in the purchases made by the BMC during the coronavirus pandemic.

In many of these cases, Chahal had signed the files, the former Maharashtra chief minister claimed.

“Why the commissioner is not being arrested? Because he is with you now? Whatever scams that are happening in Mumbai are administrative scams,” Thackeray said.

Sena (UBT) leader and former city mayor Kishori Pednekar was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate earlier this week in an alleged scam in the purchase of body bags during the pandemic.

Chahal, who is acting as administrator of the BMC since the term of its elected body expired in March 2022, would on Friday present the budget of the country’s richest civic body, and “he himself will pass it,” Thackeray quipped.

The BMC on Friday presented a Rs 59,954 crore budget for 2024-25.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)