MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council’s decision to engage a private Ponda-based Trust for door-to-door waste collection without inviting bids kicked up a huge row in the civic body on Monday.
That the Trust started their operations in Ward no 20 on Monday indeed raised many an eyebrow in the corridors of the civic body and the exercise came on the eve of the Council meeting called by the Municipal Chairperson to take a final call on engaging Self Help Groups for door-to-door waste collection.
The controversy erupted this morning after workers engaged by Bapu Environmental Social Service Organisation went door to door in ward No 20 for waste collection. Ward Councillor Damu Shirodkar and MMC officials too supervised the exercise to ensure that all went well without any problem.
As news spread over the exercise by noon, questions were raised whether the civic body had invited bids to outsource door-to-door waste collection as the Trust had received the positive signal from municipal officials. Sources said the decision to engage a private trust was never discussed at any of the Council meetings nor were the proposals received from private agencies placed at the Council meeting, other than the proposal to engaged SHGs.
Incidentally, Ward Councillor Damu Shirodkar, when contacted by Herald, not only confirmed that the private trust has taken over the door-to-door waste collection operations, but expressed satisfaction over their work. And, Shirodkar said he is not unduly concerned whether the civic officials had followed the process of inviting bids for the work.
What’s interesting to note is that the private organisation had submitted its proposal to the civic body on 21, November, with the proposal receiving a quick nod of the sanitary section and the technical section five days later on November 21. While granting the approval, the municipal engineers said the agency can be tested for an initial period of four months on the lines of the same agreement proposed for the Self Help Groups.
While the sanitary and technical sections batted for the Ponda-based organisation, questions have come to haunt the officials as to why the civic body did not invite the bids before engaging a private party, more so when the Trust has proposed to charge Rs 2 per day for door-to-door household collection when the civic body had earlier decided to charge only Rs one per day per household.
