Civic body did not communicate with us once, claims firm

JALANDHAR: On one side where the municipal corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) has outsourced around 50 sanitation workers, replacing the operation under the sweeping machine project, the company carrying out the project has claimed that civic body has not made any communication with them on the alleged scam yet.

Delhi-based Lions Services Pvt Ltd business head, Sunil Singh said, “The MC has announced through many channels that there were discrepancies in the project but they did not discuss it with us even once.”

Singh said, “The MC did not ask us to stop services but we stopped the work due to non-payment. Even after repeated reminders, they failed to clear payments worth ₹4.4 crore.”

Meanwhile, mayor Jagdish Raja said, “We have not talked to the company yet.they stopped working on the project before we could ask them to do so. Recently, the company approached us, however, the MC will decide whether they will continue the project.” Speaking on the controversy surrounding the project, Singh said, “The Jalandhar project was following Mohali pattern and everything was done as per the rules. We have sent a notice to the MC. We are open to all the communications to resolve the misunderstandings.”

THE CASE

During a House meeting on June 25, mayor Jagdish Raja had alleged that the sweeping machine project was involved in a scam worth ₹7 crore. Following the allegations, the cleanliness work was stopped on July 1. The project worth ₹30 crore was initiated in November 2016.

Raja had said that the scam was revealed after the deputy controller noticed discrepancies in payment. A probe revealed that the contractor was paid ₹6,466.66 per km per day although the agreement stated that he will be paid ₹3,233.33.

Over 100 sanitation workers of the firm manually clean the roads during the day. The firm has two machines to clean the main roads of the city during the night.