After being cornered by the BJP, the Shiv Sena is now under attack from Congress in Maharashtra over an alleged scam concerning the misallocation of funds in the construction of roads in Mumbai in the last five years. Congress MP Milind Deora on Wednesday hit out at the Shiv Sena-dominated Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India, for spending Rs 12,000 crore on roads alone in the city since 2017.

Demanding a CBI probe, Deora tweeted that even after spending such a huge amount, which is nearly 10 percent of the National Highway Authority’s budget, Mumbai roads are in dire straits, ridden with potholes.

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Stating that every Mumbaikar should know who is robbing the cash-rich municipal corporation, Deora tweeted, “Between 2017-22, @mybmc spent ₹12,000 crore on Mumbai’s roads — a staggering 10% @NHAI_Official’s annual budget! Mumbaikars brave potholes every year & deserve to know who is looting India’s richest civic body. I demand a CBI probe. Roads are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Releasing the figures spent by the Corporation, Deora revealed that around Rs 45 crore is spent alone for “road maintenance, including potholes and cold mix.” The total cost of maintaining the roads is around Rs 225 crore in the last five years between 2017-2022, added Deora.

As per Deora’s tweet, Rs 2300 crore was spent in 2017-18, 2250 crore in 2018-19, 2560 crore in 2019-20, 2200 crore in 2020-21 and 2350 crore in 2021-22.

Reacting to Deora’s tweet, the Maharashtra Congress chief said that it is no mystery that even after spending so much, every year Mumbaikar face water-logging as the city gets flooded whenever it rains. “What wrong did Milind Deora say? Several times, Mumbai Mayors were from our party. At that time Mumbai didn’t get flooded whenever it rained. But ever since BMC came under BJP & Shiv Sena, they have drowned Mumbai. Roads are in poor condition too,” Patole told news agency ANI.

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“I agree that the whopping amount of 12k crores spent on Mumbai roads by @mybmc and we all see the results everyday. The cold mix method used by @mybmc  has always given a bad result but still the administration insisted on it. This raises suspicion and enquiry must be conducted,” tweeted Ravi Raja from Congress.