Mumbai: Ahead of the BMC’s budget for the next year, Samajwadi Party’s (SP) MLA Rais Shaikh has demanded a white paper on civic body’s fixed deposits (FDs), including amount of FDs broken and current FDs, and on committed liabilities running into over Rs 2 lakh crores.

Shaikh, in his letter to BMC, said that the BMC’s financial liability has soared to over Rs 2 lakh crore, which is unprecedented in the history of the BMC. “The civic body has been dipping into its Fixed Deposits (FDs) to fund various projects. This has created a sense of fear among the Mumbaikars about the status of the civic coffers,” said Rais Shaikh, SP MLA.

Shaikh said that the BMC must present a white paper on its Fixed Deposits (FDs). “The white paper should include details of the total FDs as of March 31, 2024, and as of December 31, 2024. The BMC must also provide information on the number of FDs liquidated, along with the dates, amounts liquidated, and the purposes for which they were liquidated. The BMC should provide a statement of FDs for the entire current financial year,” demanded Shaikh.

“The BMC must fully disclose the committed liabilities, the amount in its fixed deposits, internal loans in the last two years, its plan to repay the liabilities, and overall financial management for the future,” added Shaikh.

He further said that the BMC, known for being the richest civic body in Asia, must come clean on the status of its liabilities to allay the fears among Mumbaikars. “If adequate measures are not taken right now, the BMC may be headed for a financial debt trap,” said Shaikh.

Days after Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena announced its decision to contest the BMC polls independently, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that the “INDIA alliance is only focused on national-level elections.”

While speaking about the impending local polls, the former union minister said, “There has never been any discussion on state and local elections within the INDIA alliance. The INDIA alliance is solely for national-level elections. Regarding the upcoming municipal elections in Maharashtra, everyone will decide within 8-10 days, through a meeting, whether we will contest together or independently.”

Pawar’s statement comes days after Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut announced on Saturday that his party would contest all local body elections independently.

“Uddhavji Thackeray has given us a clear indication. From Mumbai to Nagpur, we will contest local self-government elections on our own strength. Whatever happens, we want to see the outcome,” the Shiv Sena-UBT leader told the media.

Pawar also expressed his views on the Delhi Assembly elections, stating that, in his opinion, the INDIA alliance should support Arvind Kejriwal.

Pawar reportedly rubbished Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that the BJP’s victory in the Maharashtra assembly polls ended the politics of betrayal and treachery.

“I was the chief minister in 1978. I am not aware about his whereabouts then,” Pawar told reporters in Mumbai. “When I was the chief minister, there were people like Uttamrao Patil from Jan Sangh in my ministry,” Pawar added.

Mumbai: The Mumbai police probing the Torres fraud has said that it has so far received complaints from 1916 victims since case has been registered and total amount of cheating has increased to Rs 38.96 crores. The police claimed that the accused had spend around Rs 25 crores to set up offices in India, to lure customers.

The Mumbai police made this claims while seeking further custody of the three accused arrested by the Shivaji park police station last week. The court has allowed their plea and extended their custody further till January 18.

The Shivaji Park police, had last week, arrested three persons in the gigantic alleged fraud – brand director Survesh Surve, general manager Tania Kastoa alias Tazagul Karaxanovna Xasatova, an Uzbek national, and Dadar store in-charge Valentina Ganesh Kumar, a Russian national. However, the alleged masterminds, Ukrainian nationals John Carter and Victoria Kowalenko, are said to have fled the country.

The police has now added ten more accused, who are foreign national to the list of the accused Tausif Riyaz, Mustafa Karakoc, Oleksandr Borovyk, Oleksandr Zapichenko, Oleksandra Brunkivska, Oleksandra Tredokhib, Olena Stoian, Viktoriia Kovalenko.

The police said that during the investigation it has so far recovered an amount of Rs 6.75 crores out of which 77.15 lakhs were recovered from the house of Tania while the rest of the funds have recovered from the store. Besides, the probe further revealed that the accused had given fake diamonds instead of original, to the customers.

While seeking their custody the prosecution had pointed out that the accused had done a systematic planning from taking the shops on rent, to setting up furnitures, buying diamond jewelry and to return the funds to customers on their investment, the accused had allegedly spent Rs 25 cores and lured thousands of customers.