The Times of India      01.02.2011

CHENNAI: Having decided to use the services of Neel Metal Fanalca till December 2011 in the wake of Madras high court directions, the elected council of the corporation on Monday gave its nod to the civic administration to begin the process of identifying a consultant to prepare tender documents so that a new conservancy agency could be hired from 2012.

The corporation needs about a year to finalise prequalification bids, technical bids and commercial bids of contractors.

The decision to set the ball rolling to identify a consultant was taken unanimously at the council's monthly meet at Ripon Buildings. Upon a mutual agreement between the corporation and Neel Metal Fanalca, the Madras high court last Friday passed an order directing that Neel Metal Fanalca be allowed to continue operations till December 2011. The local body has to release the payment withheld for non-performance of Neel Metal Fanalca in the past in two instalments, so that the agency can improve its infrastructure and upgrade its services with more manpower.

Once the services improve, the local body shall hand over the wards of the Kodambakkam zone it had withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the private agency -- ward 129 (west K K Nagar), 128 (Virugambakkam south), 118 (Trustpuram), 120 (United India Colony and Kamaraj Colony), 121 (Dr Subburayan Nagar and Raghavan Colony), 116 (Nandanam) and 115 (Alwarpet), the high court had said.

"A high-level team, comprising corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan, deputy commissioners and members of all parties, will be set up to study the improvements," mayor M Subramanian said.

In the wake of the developments, the council was informed that the recruitment drive for conservancy labourers in all the four zones coming under Neel Metal Fanalca -- Ice House, Kodambakkam, Mylapore and Pulianthope -- had been shelved. The civic body, with the support of employment exchange, had sent call letters to 17,000 eligible persons for conservancy work and many particpated in the interview. There was a requirement of 6,811 workers to replace Neel Metal Fanalca in all four zones.

During the discussion, Congress councillor P N Vanaja said there were large-scale complaints from the public on the poor performance of Neel Metal Fanalca. "One thing for sure, they are more interested in collecting debris to increase the tonnage. The elected representatives have to block their compactors if the workers fail to remove garbage from the streets," she said.