The Indian Express: Mumbai: Friday,
December 09, 2016.
AFTER scams
on roads, drain de-silting and anaesthesia machines, the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC) has been hit by allegations of yet another scam, this time in
the transportation of garbage. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporator
Sandeep Deshpande alleged in the Standing Committee Thursday the scam was worth
Rs 900 crore and involved 43 contractors.
Deshpande
said fellow corporator Sujatha Pathak from the T ward had prepared a report on
alleged violations of tender conditions by the contractors appointed in the N,
S and T wards for transporting garbage. “Several residents of the three wards
complained their waste was not being collected regularly, which prompted us to
probe the issue. We applied for documents under the Right to Information Act
and found 15 violations of the tender conditions. We are confident all other
companies have similarly cheated the BMC,” he said.
Deshpande
added that similar to the findings of the inquiry into the de-silting scam,
logsheets of the vehicle tracking system of garbage compactors indicated
similar anomalies. “There are multiple entries of the same truck with
overlapping entry and exit timings. In other cases, while one shift mandates an
eight-hour duty time, there are entries where a large compactor has completed
the shift in 15 seconds,” he said, adding that the transportation of garbage to
the three dumping grounds has been given out in eight tenders to 43 companies
in the city divided into six zones.
Alleging that
solid waste management officials were hand in glove with the contractors, he
said, “While the tender conditions clearly state the companies bidding for them
cannot be related to each other, documents indicate the owners of two such
companies are brothers with the same official address. Officials have
overlooked violations of this kind and the tender conditions have been designed
to benefit the contractors.”
He alleged
that RTI documents revealed all the 96 compactors (small, mini and large)
transporting garbage had expired fitness certificates. Deshpande said he had
sent the findings to the mayor, the municipal commissioner, the chief minister
as well as the Governor but had not received any response.
“There is a
scam of Rs 900 crore and the citizens have suffered because of it. There should
be an inquiry, which has to be completed within a time-frame unlike the road
scam inquiry, and SWM officials need to be suspended to ensure they don’t
tamper with evidence,” he said. Even though none of the corporators from the
Shiv Sena spoke on the issue, Standing Committee chairperson Yashodhar Phanse
asked the administration to study the documents submitted by Deshpande and file
a reply at the next meeting.
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