Gadkari writes to Centre, seeks action against Mundhe

Nagpur: Union minister Nitin Gadkari has finally broken his silence on the ongoing tussle between municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe and BJP corporators. Gadkari has approached the Centre against Mundhe claiming his illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and fraudulent affairs as CEO of Nagpur Smart City could jeopardize the ambitious central government-funded project.
In his letters addressed to minister of state for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and minister of state for DoPT Jitendra Singh, Gadkari said Mundhe as municipal commissioner has unlawfully and unconstitutionally grabbed the position of CEO of Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd (NSSCDCL) and repeatedly projected himself to have been appointed by chairman of NSSDCL Pravin Singh Pardeshi.“Even otherwise, the CEO of the company cannot be appointed by chairman unilaterally as the power to appoint vests with the board of directors,” said Gadkari.
Since Mundhe’s posting as municipal commissioner on January 28, tussle between the ruling party in the civic body and the former was witnessed on several occasions. Even during the recently-concluded five-day-long marathon discussion on adjournment motion in the general body, ruling party corporators and some Congress corporators had criticised the municipal commissioner.
The Union minister further said after “forcefully grabbing” the position of CEO, Mundhe has revoked various unanimous decisions taken by the board of directors, such as cancellation of approved tenders, termination of contractual employees amid Covid-19 pandemic, misappropriation of funds by introducing his signature in the current account maintained with Bank of Maharashtra etc.
He also mentioned that even Nagpur mayor Sandip Joshi as one of the nominee directors and shareholder of the company has already lodged a criminal complaint against Mundhe and CFO as well as accounts officer of NSSCDCL under sections 420, 463, 464, 465, 466, 468, 471 of the IPC and 447 of the Companies Act, 2013, alleging they are defrauding the exchequer and usurping public money with an oblique motive to divert it for extraneous consideration and without any authority.
The Union minister and city MP demanded necessary action against Mundhe in order to prevent him for jeopardizing the ambitious project.
Despite repeated attempts through calls and messages, Mundhe was not available for his comments.
Meanwhile, BJP city MLAs approached police commissioner Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay against Mundhe in an alleged Rs20 crore Smart City scam. City BJP president and MLC Pravin Datke, MLAs Krishna Khopde, Sameer Meghe, Mohan Mate, Vikas Kumbhare, MLCs Girish Vyas and Anil Sole, MP Dr Vikas Mahatme handed over a complaint against the municipal commissioner to the top cop.
Earlier, in a complaint lodged with Sadar police, mayor Joshi and ruling party leader Sandip Jadhav had alleged that Mundhe as CEO of Smart City project misused his powers and doctored paperwork to favour private institutions for Rs20 crore. The case has been handed over to economic offences wing (EOW) led by deputy commissioner Shweta Khedkar.
Congress MLA and city president Vikas Thakre said Mundhe should not ignore elected representatives. “I don’t have much knowledge about the Smart City issue, but I think municipal commissioner should work with corporators and MLAs for city’s development,” he said. North Nagpur MLA and district guardian minister Nitin Raut refused to comment.