Probe Rs 12,000 crore scam; keep Shinde out of cabinet: Aditya Thackeray to CM Fadnavis

New Delhi : Shiv Sena(UBT) MLA Aditya Thackeray on Sunday alleged that former Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and two other former ministers were involved in a Rs 12,000 crore road scam and should not be included in the cabinet.

Thackeray urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to exclude Shinde and two other ex-ministers from the cabinet due to their alleged involvement in the road scam.

In a post on X, Thackeray wrote, "If the bjp government is serious about acting on the road scam, they must keep the then illegal cm shinde and 2 guardian ministers of Shinde’s regime- Lodha and Kesarkar, out of the cabinet."

He alleged that the BJP was also speaking about the bad road work and had sought an SIT probe.

"More so, the fact that the bjp is also speaking about shoddy road work and asking for SIT only proves my point- the shinde regime indulged in 2 road scams worth ₹12,000 crores," Thackeray further wrote in the post.

He said that this was Mumbai’s hard-earned money which has been wasted "for contractors and politicians to fill their pockets."

Thackeray claims in the post that he has been exposing them for the past two years.

"I exposed them for the past 2 years, but the bjp supported that regime. For a clean start, I urge CM Devendra Fadnavis ji to start a formal inquiry into the road scam," he said.

The Cabinet expansion of the new BJP-led Maharashtra government is likely to take place in Nagpur on Sunday, with several new faces expected to be inducted into the council of ministers.

The ambitious project, aimed at repairing 700 km of roads to address Mumbai's perennial pothole problem, was initiated after Shinde became the Chief Minister and handled the Urban Development portfolio.

Thackeray also alleged there was cartelisation of contracts when Shinde was the Chief Minister and handled the Urban Development portfolio. "The BJP has now demanded an SIT probe into the contracts awarded for the construction of roads. We demand an EOW probe into this," Thackeray had said earlier.

Mumbai BJP Chief Ashish Shelar has also raised concerns over the issue, meeting Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani on Friday to demand the formation of an SIT. Shelar also called for a detailed audit involving experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) to evaluate 40 per cent of the concretised road patches on a randomised basis.

IANS