CM Devendra Fadnavis defaulting on water bill worth ₹7 lakh according to BMC list; other ministers named

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis has been declared as a defaulter by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), because an RTI query filed by activist Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh revealed that his bungalow ‘Varsha’ has not paid water bills worth ₹7,44,981.

The RTI report stated that the bungalows of several state ministers including CM Devendra Fadnavis have unpaid bills worth ₹45 lakhs.

The ministers named in the list released by the municipal corporation include Pankaja Munde, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Diwakar Raote.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s bungalow, ‘Devgari’ has defaulted on water bills worth ₹4,45,055. Transport Minister Diwakar Raote’s bungalow, ‘Meghdoot’ has defaulted on payment of bills worth ₹1,61,719 and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde’s bungalow has defaulted on payment of bills worth ₹35,033.

Some other ministers mentioned in the defaulter list were Ashish Shelar, Subhash Desai, Eknath Shinde, Chandrashekhar Bavankule and Mahadev Jankar.

Besides the official residences of minister, the Maharashtra government’s official guest house, ‘Sahyadri’ also has an outstanding bill of ₹12,04,390 which has gone unpaid since 2018.

RTI activist Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh, protested against the authorities over their failure to take action against the defaulting minister. He said, "If the bills of Chief Minister's and other State Minister's bungalows are not paid in time, then how can you expect a common people to do it? If the common people fail to pay their bills, their water connection is disconnected. The same should be done to all the defaulters including Chief Minister's official bungalow,” according to a report by News18.

(With inputs from News18)