PUNE By filing a series of applications under Right to Information (RTI) Act, Congress leader Datta Bahirat and his colleges exposed corruption in the garbage transportation system. The civic administration has taken a note of their complaints and recently recovered ₹70 lakh from the contractor.
Datta Bahirat and his colleagues Sachin Bahirat and Baba Sayyed said, “On January 19, the administration informed us that they recovered ₹70 lakh from the contractor and inquiry is going on for various complaints filed by them. Though it was decided that the contractor would repair and maintain his vehicles outside, it was found that PMC vehicle depot used their accessories to repair contractors’ vehicles.”
Sachin Bahirat said, “The RTI documents show fake bills submitted by contractor and the PMC have paid bills for garbage transportation without any inspection. The same garbage vehicles were used at two different wards and staff names also match. How is it, that a vehicle can run at the same time with the same staff at two different locations? We had requested for GPS location, entry time of vehicle, but we got answers only after constant follow up.”
It was also found that garbage vehicles carried less waste as compared to its capacity and increased transportation bills.
{{/usCountry}}It was also found that garbage vehicles carried less waste as compared to its capacity and increased transportation bills.
{{/usCountry}}NCP leader Chetan Tupe said that there is a corruption of crores of rupees in the PMC garbage transportation. “There is a nexus between contractor, some officials and BJP workers who are running this garbage transportation. Instead of showing short cut route to transport garbage, they are taking longer routes to increase their bills and looting tax payers money.”
PMC pays more during pandemic
Though there was a lockdown and almost all the commercial activities were stopped and hotels were closed, the garbage generation was less during the first lockdown.
Sachin Bahirat said, “PMCs figures show that garbage generation was less. But bills show that the civic body paid more money.”
Amount paid for garbage transportation from March-July
2016: ₹1.66 crore
2017: ₹4.14 crore
2018 ₹6.85 crore
2019: ₹10.20 crore
2020: ₹10.11 crore (lockdown period)