Chandigarh: Private players may handle sanitation in UT’s 13 new villages

MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra while speaking to The Indian Express said, “As of now, this has just been mooted to give the sweeping and cleaning of streets in 13 villages and the area of Mani Majra (to a private firm). It will be known after the agenda is prepared and the House decides what is to be done. It is only in the discussion stage”.

When asked about why this was needed, she said, “The regular employees are retiring on a regular basis. From January, 2022, 44 employees have retired. Only as many as 502 regular employees continue in service. By 2028, all would have retired”.

The sanitation work in the southern belt already lies with a private firm, Lions Services Limited, that takes a whopping Rs 4.70 crore a month to carry out mechanised sweeping in the entire belt. This means around Rs 56.4 crore is being paid to agency annually.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor and Leader of Opposition, Yogesh Dhingra said, “I had spoken to the commissioner inquiring about the need for bringing in private players. She told me that we don’t have much staff and the Chandigarh administration had handed over these villages to us. At the same time, recruitment of new staff is not being carried out at the moment. Our city is lagging behind in sanitation and that is why we are in need to get private players here, to cater to this aspect of sanitation.”

The cleaning in back service lanes is also being given to a private agency. A tender in this regard for Sectors 1 to 30 has already been floated by the civic body. The tender states that cleaning and maintenance of rear lanes will have to be ensured at all times and photographic evidence will have to be produced by the contractor. It is expected that the entire process will be in place by November 15. It was also stated that the collection vehicles should be compartmentalised for construction and demolition, horticulture and municipal solid waste.

Legacy mining by private firms too

The work of legacy mining is also being done by two private firms, one by a Nagpur-based agency for Rs 34 crore and a Karnal-based firm has been allotted the mining of remaining part of the dump for around Rs 68 crore, which amounts to almost Rs 100 crore. The site in Dadu Majra, spread over 45 acres with two dumps of waste of 5 and 8 lakh metric tonnes covering 16 and 8 acres of land respectively would be bio-mined.