MUMBAI: The BMC has decided to allow three of the six contractors named in the roads scam to take up civic works again. They will be able to bid for works only up to Rs7.5 crore. The civic body described this as a “demotion.” Many corporators alleged that the BMC was actually laying out the red carpet for contractors who had siphoned off taxpayer money. Samajwadi Party leader in the BMC Rais Shaikh said that the corporation had, for the first time, taken action against many of its engineers but was allowing the contractors involved to take up works again. “This seems to have been done systematically to bring these tainted contractors back into the system,"Shaikh said.Opposition party leader in the BMC Ravi Raja said the move “defeats the transparency agenda” which the administration claims it has. “Whatever the quantum of loss, the BMC should have blacklisted these companies for giving the city such bad roads,” he said. The BJP’s Makrand Narwekar said this move made the whole inquiry look like an eyewash. "This has become a trend in the administration,”he alleged.A panel appointed by civic chief Ajoy Mehta had in its report on 34 roads said in 2015 that all these roads had been repaired shoddily. The probe panel was appointed after the then mayor Snehal Ambekar wrote to Mehta a letter on the repairs done. The BMC had then issued show-cause notices to the six contractors.While the first phase of the inquiry closed with punishments being awarded to 96 engineers, the second phase of the probe ended earlier this year with 169 engineers being indicted. Ten employees of two thirdparty auditor firms were also arrested.The first phase of the inquiry saw four engineers being dismissed and the second saw two. Punishment recommended for other engineers includes reduction in rank, reduction in pension, no increment next year, fines and censures. Mehta, in his speaking order on the inquiry, had pointed out that citizens were inconvenienced because of the scam as public money was not put to proper use.“Widespread connivance and negligence has led to poor quality roads,” he said. “As in the first phase report, once again serious irregularities have been noticed in the second one. It appears that road works without maintaining standards was the norm... There is clearly a case to take serious note of the deviations and send a message that this gross criminal waste of public money will not be tolerated and those responsible will be punished,” his order had said.