Mumbai: Nine BMC Ward Officers Under Scanner For Irregularities In Road-Widening Scheme

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday issued notices to nine ward officers for alleged irregularities in a road-widening scheme.

BMC has issued the notices to assistant commissioners of wards ranging from A (Colaba) through F South (Parel), requiring them to submit detailed documentation relating to Regulation 33(12)(B) under the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

According to the notice, signed by additional municipal commissioner (city) Ashwini Joshi on October 7, the officials have been directed to submit detailed, ward-wise records on how the road-widening regulation has been implemented, HT reported.

The irregularities cited include issues like misuse of the road-widening regulations, possible collusion with developers, concerns over issue of demolition notices, surveys done, and how displaced people have been or will be rehabilitated.

In her note accessed by HT, Joshi, has sought specific details, including the number of structures surveyed under the scheme, the issuance of Annexure-2 documents, the status of demolition notices and data on how many PAPs have been successfully relocated. The departments have been also directed to submit photographic evidence of the sites. Additionally, the images are required to have accurate geolocation data to verify the claims.

Regulation 33(12)(B) of the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034 is a special provision aimed at facilitating the removal and re-accommodation of tolerated or protected structures that fall in the alignment of existing roads or road-widening projects where a road line has been prescribed.

Under this regulation, such structures can be removed to clear bottlenecks for road development, and the affected occupants are to be rehabilitated within the same administrative ward to ensure fair relocation.

BMC has asked these officers for detailed records on how the policy was applied in each case.

Whistleblowers allege a wider nexus between some ward officials and private developers. They claim ineligible beneficiaries have been favoured, while genuine PAPs were sidelined.

Activist Santosh Daundkar, who first raised concerns in 2023, has called for a formal inquiry and criminal proceedings where wrongdoing is established. The notices indicate the civic body is now seeking granular documentation to test those claims and to determine where safeguards under the scheme may have been bypassed, the report stated.