The Indian Express: Mumbai: Saturday, March 24, 2018.
A day after
BJP leader Eknath Khadse questioned how a company could have killed 3.19 lakh
rats in the state secretariat in seven days, the Maharashtra government Friday
said the contract given to the company had specified not the number of rats,
but the number of tablets needed to kill the rats.
The
government said a contract was given to a private company, Vinayak Mazoor
Cooperative Society, to provide 3,19,400 tablets to kill rats for which it was
paid Rs 4,79,100. The government, however, could not furnish details on the
effectiveness of the tablets in killing the rats or provide numbers of how many
rats had been killed in Mantralaya after the tablets were used.
After
Khadse’s allegations, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Chandrakant Patil
Friday convened a meeting with senior officials to determine the alleged
irregularities. The PWD had issued the pest control work order.
The work
order, accessed by The Indian Express, stated, “The PWD had issued two tenders
on May 3, 2016. The work order was given to Vinayak Mazoor Cooperative
Society.” The work order mentioned that 3,19,400 tablets were to be procured to
kill rats. The Vinayak Mazoor Cooperative Society is located in Mazgaon in
Mumbai.
A senior
bureaucrat said, “It appears there was a goof-up. The number 3,19,400 was for
tablets to kill rats and not statistics of how many rats were killed.” The
officer also said that there was no data to ascertain the impact of the
tablets.
Explaining
the confusion, PWD officials said, “There were various columns. The tablets to
kill rats were read as rats killed.”
The work
order for Mantralaya and its annexe building had specified 3,19,400 tablets
based on an alleged study which determined the number of tablets required to
kill rats across the building.
Similar
details were provided under the Right to Information Act (RTI). In response to
an RTI application, the government categorically said the contract was for
3,19,400 tablets to kill rats. The rate of tablets was Rs 1.50. Khadse,
however, stood his ground and said, “Whatever I said in the state Assembly on
Friday was based on the information furnished under RTI. The contract was being
awarded or payment was made for 3,19,400 rats killed.”
He said that
the government should have told him if incorrect information was given out.
“The contract was given for six months which was reduced to two months and work
completed within seven days,” he said.
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