GHMC garbage machines make a sweeping racket
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Sweeping machines in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have become new moneyminting machines for private agencies and officials.
Taking advantage of the pandemic and lockdowninduced deserted roads, contractors have been running vehicles with GPS equipment on without sweeping the roads.
It has also come to official notice that the contractors, hand in glove with the officials, have been claiming bills without even sweeping the roads. However, authorities were turning a blind eye and did not check the irregularities since field-level staff and officials monitoring the work were deployed on other duties. This has been not only leaking the corporation’s revenue but also turning the roads dirtier than usual when the nodal agency has been facing severe financial crisis during the current financial year.
The GHMC on August 21, 2015, entered into an agreement with Marlin infra-lion services to maintain and operate sweeping machines. As per the agreement, the sweeping machines should work for 10 hours from 9 pm to 7 am on a daily basis. Highly-placed sources in the GHMC said that the sweeping machines have been sweeping only a lane adjacent to the road divider but not all lanes.
Sources say that most of the sweeping machines which are to work for 10 hours are working only for three hours and not taking the social audit. Sources also said due to the apathy of GHMC officials, private contractors are maintaining everything on paper but not on the ground.
Sources claimed that the private agencies, hand in glove with corporation officials, have not only claimed full amounts in the bills but also collected maintenance charges. “More than 60 per cent of the bills are fake. Due to the negligence of GHMC, private agencies and ground-level staff have been swindling several crore rupees,” said a source.
When Deccan Chronicle conducted a ground verification on Tuesday night and spoke to the sweeping machine drivers, they said that GHMC officials and contractors maintaining them has instructed them only to sweep four kilometres and only lanes in 10 hours’ time. They claimed that they were following the instructions of higher authorities.
For instance, a sweeping machine driver with registration number AP TA 9095, which has been sweeping from Gandhi Hospital towards RTC X Roads on Tuesday night, said that he is supposed to clean one lane on both sides of the road. “I am just following the instructions of my superior at work,” he said.
Each sweeping machine should sweep 60kms per day. The civic body has been paying `2,457 per hour to sweep the city roads. The corporation has been spending `7.37 lakh per machine every month. Overall, the corporation has been spending `1.84 crore on 26 sweeping machines. A senior GHMC official said that it was the duty of the vehicle owner to check the condition of brooms installed in the vehicles. He said that deputy commissioners and AMoHs should conduct field inspections on a regular basis to check the quality of the brooms.
Stringent action will be taken against officials and private contractors for not inspecting vehicle maintenance, said the official. The civic body is spending `30.78 crore annually to clean 2,000kms of arterial roads in the city. It was also found out from the officials that 18 sweeping machines have been under-performing.
A SENIOR GHMC official said that it was the duty of the vehicle owner to check the condition of brooms installed in the vehicles. He said that deputy commissioners and AMoHs should conduct field inspections on a regular basis to check the quality of the brooms.