As the present annual contracts expire on Thursday, the civic body approved extension to the present contractors to continue the job with immediate effect from Friday for at least next two months. Till then, the MC will call fresh bids for awarding the contracts to new contractors, if any, come forward to take up the work on lesser rates.

A resolution to this effect was unanimously adopted at a special meeting of the MC House, chaired by its vice-president Harpal Singh. Even as MC president Rajinder Rana, his mentor local MLA Balbir Sidhu, who is an ex-officio MC member, and most of the councillors skipped the meeting, convened to take call on a major public issue, the MC officials had to make frantic calls to the councillors to come and ensure the fulfilment of quorum to initiate proceedings of the MC House meeting.

It was after around half-an-hour of the scheduled time of 3 pm that the minimum required 17 of the total 31 councillors were arranged to attend the meeting, enabling to proceed further.

As all 11 councillors of the SAD-backed opposition group, present at the meeting, took the Congress-led ruling group to task for not initiating the proceedings well in advance to ensure transparency in the award of sanitation contracts, the six ruling group councillors pressed for resolving to renew the present contracts so that the essential work could not stop after expiry of present contracts. 

However, ruling group councillors accused opposition group for withholding all the agenda items, which also included renewal of sanitation contracts, brought at the MC monthly meeting held on September 23.

On the strong resentment of the House on the non-satisfactory working of the present sanitation contractors, MC Executive Officer Amana Kumar Goel assured to form a five-member councillors’ panel to submit satisfactory report every month before release of contract amount to the contractors. “If councillors are not satisfied with the job, the contractor will not be paid,” Goel further assured.

Effecting a hike of over 82 per cent, the estimates of four sanitation contracts last year given at Rs 1.5 crore per annum were increased to Rs 2.23 crore per annum while two additional garbage lifting contracts have been estimated to be allotted at Rs 50.7 lakh, taking the total amount of contracts to Rs 2.74 crore. However, the MC budget has provision of spending Rs 1 crore on sanitation contracts.

Shiv Sena corporator Seema Savle, who filed the RTI, has received a reply from the PCMC slum department that brochures and applications worth Rs 32 lakh were printed and most of them are gathering dust at the slum improvement and housing department.

Under the EWS housing plan, the PCMC had, over three years back, decided to construct 13,250 flats each worth Rs 1.5 lakh. For this, the PCMC had in 2008 printed 1.55 lakh brochures and applications. As many as 24,000 citizens bought the applications of whom 17,000 filled the forms and applied for the houses, RTI reply said. “The remaining brochures and applications remained with the PCMC,” said Savle.

The RTI reply says each set was sold for Rs 25.

“That means, 1.31 lakh brochures and applications were unsold. This is criminal waste of public money,” she said. Savle said this was gross injustice to the poor who were first promised a flat at Rs 1.5 lakh and then told to pay Rs 3.5 lakh. “Now we know where the funds have gone,” she said.

Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma said the brochures and applications must have been printed in anticipation of the demand, as the cost of a flat was a mere Rs 1.5 lakh. Sharma added that the decision to print the forms was taken before he assumed charge. 

Assistant municipal commissioner Aziz Karche, who heads the slum department, said he will study the matter as the print order was issued before he took charge. “The sets must have been printed as Pimpri-Chinchwad has a population of 15 lakh. Officials must have tried to ensure they don’t fall short of demand,” he said.

However, Savle alleged, “Rs 32 lakh is not a small amount. This reflects the way PCMC utilises public money.” Shiv Sena youth leader Sarang Kamthekar said they would soon file a police complaint against the PCMC officials who are responsible for this waste of money.

“Not only did they waste the money, but it has also come to light that the print order was given without issuing proper tenders,” he alleged. The civic chief said he would look into the allegations.