Mumbai, March 16 Various departments and agencies of the Maharashtra government owe nearly Rs 11,000 crore to Mumbai's civic body, Shiv Sena minister Uday Samant said on Monday.
Responding to a question in the legislative council, Industries Minister Samant said that according to the report received by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the state government and other departments owe Rs 10,948.58 crore as of January 31.
Samant, who has been delegated to respond to queries related to the Urban Development department, said that the Education department owes Rs 7,241.38 crore, followed by Rs 934.28 by the Housing department.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA, under the Urban Development department), Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban collectorates owe Rs 2,256.18 crore to the BMC, while other departments owe Rs 516.74 crore, Samant said.
Samant said that the government is bound to clear the BMC's dues, even if it is in phases.
Shiv Sena's Anil Parab said there is incoherence in the data shared by the government.
On one hand, the BMC's expenditure is in the order of several lakh crores. In such circumstances, in the last three years, Rs 1,600 crore were given to ruling party MLAs and MPs, Parab said.
"This (the money given to ruling party MLAs and MPs) was the cost of betrayal. This is a prize which the erstwhile Nizam used to give for treachery. The prize used to be given to those who betrayed the state," Parab said in a reference to the revolt by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in 2022 that resulted in the split in the undivided Shiv Sena and toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray government.
Parab sought a time-bound plan as to when the state government will clear BMC's dues.
Hitting back, Samant said that betrayal is siphoning public money through the desilting work of Mithi river and indulging in "khichdi scam".
Betrayal is seeking votes as an alliance and then forging tie-up with another, he said in an apparent reference to the undivided Shiv Sena fighting in alliance with the BJP (in the 2019 assembly polls) but then severing ties to form the Maha Vikas Agahdi government with Congress and the undivided NCP.
