The Hindu : Dhalao maintenance contract raises questions

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Friday, Jun 13, 2003

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Dhalao maintenance contract raises questions

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 12. A few months before the task of garbage transportation is to be privatised in six zones of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the recent controversy over the issue of "dhalaos'' being maintained by a private firm, Greenline, does not augur well for the civic body.

The controversy erupted after the House passed the agenda in a hurried manner last week especially as the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, had directed scrapping of the scheme involving private parties for maintenance of dhalaos in lieu of advertisement.

Despite the fact that the scheme -- launched by the previous BJP regime some two years ago -- has a success ratio of a mere 10 per cent, the Congress-ruled MCD had given accent to the proposal to not only extend it, but also that the Greenline be allowed to continue with its 10 dhalaos at previously fixed nominal rate of Rs.5,000.

Interestingly, even the top BJP Councillors who were present in the meeting of the sub-committee constituted for this purpose, did not oppose the passing of the agenda. The Congress leaders on the other hand argued that they were continuing with the agreement of the previous regime.

Notably, Arti Mehra, the Gulmohar Park Councillor, during the meeting had suggested -- endorsed by all the other members -- that the Greenline be asked to enhance its license fee at par with the nearest dhalao. However, the proposal passed by the House did not carry this provision.

Further, the Committee was supposed to prepare a white paper on the issue, which has never been prepared or tabled in the MCD House. Instead, its summery was presented and the decisions taken at the meeting was changed when it reached the House.

Mr. Mehta, it is understood, has ordered an inquiry into the entire episode. Even Mehta was surprised to see the agenda in the House which was rejected by him. It is likely that some heads would roll in the civic body now.

The CBI has already filed an FIR and has been investigating the case of allotment of dhalaos to Greenline. "While the CBI inquiry is going on, it is quite undesirable that the company is awarded,'' a senior MCD official said.

The House also decided to withdraw blacklisting of companies which had withdrawn or not constructed dhalaos at the site for which it had won the bid. The parties which have been blacklisted and are now willing to construct the dhalao at the sites awarded to them should be permitted to do so, the sub-committee members decided.

Mr. Mehta in his jottings on the file is also understood to have asked how the location of the dhalao was being changed without any justification and at times from inside a colony on to the main road. While Mr. Mehta had directed there should be no shifting of venue of a dhalao outside a ward, it is at times being shifted to a different zone altogether.

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Dhalao maintenance contract raises questions