Nagpur: A day after TOI exposed the alleged LED lamps scam in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) quoting RTI reply, a lawyer knocked judiciary’s doors, pointing out the flagrant misuse of public money by the respondents in connivance and collusion with the eight private companies. The PIL would come up for hearing next Wednesday.
While attaching TOI news published on Thursday, Abhiyan Barahate filed a PIL through lawyer Shashibhushan Wahane praying for directives to respondents to place all relevant records regarding the procedure before the court. He also insisted on conducting the quality comparison of LED bulbs installed by NMC with other products in the market from the experts.
The petitioner, who claims to be a social worker, demanded to stop payments to the private contractors engaged by the corporation for installing LED lamps till pendency of the petition. He also sought directives to respondents to initiate legal and penal action against the concerned officials and contractors and recover entire swindled amount from them.
NMC commissioner Virendra Singh, city mayor Nanda Jichkar, NMC’s Purchasing and Standing committee chairmen, and its executive engineer with Electricity Department, Sanjay Jaiswal, among others are made respondents in the PIL.
Quoting news item titled “LED lamps cost Rs 3,400 in market, NMC pays Rs. 9,900”, the petitioner accused the civic body of purchasing inferior product which is much cheaper than international quality products available in markets. Corporator Sandeep Sahare, who had filed an RTI in this regard, was also added as a respondent.
He also verified the TOI news from his own sources in the market and found that cost of LED lights purchased by NMC through their contracts/supplier companies is much costlier. The first five respondents had not only indulged into corrupt practices, but also cheated the taxpayers. This is nothing but misuse and abuse of power which isn’t in the interest of society, he claimed.