Mumbai, May 28 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee on Wednesday recommended strong action including registration of a first information report (FIR) against the firm engaged for desilting of drains in zone five, for dereliction of duty and failure to complete the assigned work within the May 31 deadline. According to the BMC's dashboard, by May 27, only 68.81% of desilting operations had been completed in zone five which covers suburbs in the northeast such as Kurla, Chembur, Govandi, Deonar and Trombay, against the city's average of 95.52%. Standing committee chairman Prabhakar Shinde said there had been little progress in desilting work in zone five since May 5, when members of the committee started visiting the area. "A contractor cannot take up a task, then back off mid-way. If they are not able to complete the task, they should not be taking up such responsibilities in the first place," Shinde said. Officials from BMC's storm water drains department said the contractor, SBD Infratech Pvt Ltd, was unable to show the plot where silt would be dumped, and it could not provide dumpers equipped with vehicle-tracking systems. Additional municipal commissioner (western suburbs) Vipin Sharma said the BMC would launch criminal proceedings against SBD Infratech. "Due to the urgency involved and the limited time at hand, we had to get the contractor from the neighbouring zone six to restart desilting work in zone five," Sharma said. Ranuja Dev Corporation, which handles desilting work in zone six, has been assigned the leftover work in zone five at a cost of Rs.12.70 crore, officials said. The deadline has been extended by 10 days, from May 31 to June 10, to complete the pending work, they noted. Ashraf Azmi, group leader of the Congress in the BMC, said not enough machinery or labourers were being deployed to clean up drains across the city. "The numbers put out by the BMC are totally misleading and do not match the reality on the ground. There is not even a pretence of clean-up," he said. Corporators across the board shared these concerns and feared being blamed in case of flooding during the monsoon. "For the citizens of Mumbai, the BMC only means us corporators and we will be blamed for the imminent flooding expected this year," said Anjali Naik, a member of the BMC standing committee....