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Chandigarh: Proposal to hand over Sector-25 waste plant to private contractor approved
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors passed the agenda with a voice vote without debate after Congress councillors stormed the well of the House while thumping thalis.
Amid repeated disruptions by Congress councillors, the municipal corporation (MC) General House on Thursday approved the proposal to hand over the controversial waste processing plant in Sector 25 to a private operator.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors passed the agenda with a voice vote without debate after Congress councillors stormed the well of the House while thumping thalis. The Congress councillors, led by leader of opposition Devinder Singh Babla, were protesting against the hiked water bills received by city residents.
With the plan to hand over the plant receiving House approval, the MC will now be inviting expression of interest for the upgrade and maintenance of the plant on “as is where is basis.”
The MC had taken over the plant around six months ago from the Jaypee Group after a bitter dispute over its management.
The plant is currently working at around 10% of its capacity, adding to the challenges of processing solid waste in a city that produces nearly 470 metric tonnes of waste daily.
Like Jaypee, MC too has been disposing of unprocessed waste at the Dadumajra dumping ground.
The agency hired for the purpose will upgrade or replace the existing machinery and manage the plant.
A monitoring committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) visited the plant on December 7 and reviewed its functioning. The committee had directed that the plant be upgraded in order to increase the processing capacity of the plant.
The plant was built in 2008 in accordance with the Municipal Solid Waste 2000 (MSW) guidelines. All machines are already 12 years old, at the end of their life. Primary and secondary shredders are not in working condition.
Notably, the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research here, in a report earlier this year, had said that “complete replacement of the machinery to process municipal solid waste with new technology” was required.
The civil engineering department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R), in its status report of 500 TPD (tonnes per day) solid waste processing plant, Chandigarh, had something else to say. The machinery required immediate repairs and maintenance and after that, it could “be run at 40% of its capacity”.
IIT-R had advocated setting up “a new modern 500 TPD plant for dry and wet waste treatment in the given plot. For the wet waste stream, biological treatment will be required to meet Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM), 2016, the report said.
Other important decisions of the day
*The MC House also approved the ₹75 crore proposal for strengthening and re-carpeting of city roads and parking lots for the financial year 2021-22. The MC will carry out recarpeting work in the new financial year as per the recommendations of NITTTR. Notably, the MC is yet to start the road recarpeting work for the current financial year (2020-2021), which it plans to start in February-March 2021. Even the road works sanctioned for 2019-2020 are yet to be completed.
*House waived off interest on property tax for the period between November 22, 2004 to March 31, 2006 in temporary sheds at Industrial Area, Phase I and II
*The proposal for exemption of property tax for institutional/charitable trusts was also approved.
*House sanctioned ₹74 lakh for cattle pound and ₹50 lakh for dog pound at Raipur Kalan for providing public health services and fire fighting.
Ugly scenes for over outgoing mayor’s performance
The Congress and BJP councillors clashed repeated over the performance of the outgoing mayor Raj Bala Malik. This was the last House meet under her mayorship. Tempers particularly flared when Congress leader Devinder Singh Babla used the word “bekar” (useless) while describing the tenure of Malik. Responding to him Malik said, “You are bekar”.
