The Times of India 31.10.2013
Nagpur Municipal Corporation terminates Swachatha's road sweeping contract
NAGPUR: Acknowledging irregularities in the contract of road sweeping machine exposed in a series of reports by TOI, municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane on Wednesday terminated the contract with Bangalore-based Swachatha Corporation. "NMC will also recover Rs 38.60 lakh paid to the company," said additional municipal commissioner Hemant Kumar Pawar confirming the decision.
NMC's health department had engaged the machine for sweeping city roads from November 2012. The machine's cost is Rs78.44 lakh but as per the agreement NMC was supposed to pay the private firm Rs 7.56 crore over five years. Pawar told TOI that after TOI's expose, civic chief had asked for a probe by two committees. Both the committees confirmed the irregularities. "One of the major irregularities was it claimed to have swept the roads even during heavy rains in June this year," he said and added that the private firm during its hearing before the municipal commissioner admitted its fault.
"The diesel data provided by the agency did not match the kilometres covered," Pawar said. He also pointed out that the firm did not even bother to rectify the defunct milometer in the machine. The civic chief has also issued show cause notices to three senior officials attached with the health department and they included officiating deputy director Dr Milind Ganvir, Dr Ashok Urkude and store in-charge Rajkumar Meshram.
The health department reportedly okayed the bills of Swachatha Corporation including for the days of heavy downpour and sent them to accounts and finance department for payment, he stated. "These officials were given a week's time to file their reply," Pawar stated.
When the scam was exposed by TOI, the officials, in a virtual admission of guilt, recalled the bill and are trying to correct it. The city witnessed heavy rains during much of July as well. The officials are planning to deduct the amount paid to the firm for rainy days in June taking into account rainfall data," the sources said confirming that earlier bills were passed without any scrutiny or verification.
