BMP Council clears garbage tender amidst protests

BMP Council clears garbage tender amidst protests
Vijay Times

Bangalore: Finally, after a year-long delay, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council, on Thursday gave a clearance to invite new garbage tenders.

Amidst protests by the Opposition and walk out by Congress MLAs K Chandrashekar and N L Narendra Babu, Mayor Mumtaz Begum approved garbage tenders for a three-year term at the BMP Council meeting.

The new system of garbage segregation will come into effect after the resolution gets approval from the government. With 253 health wards in BMP limits, there is a requirement of Rs 85.44 crore for garbage disposal, based on a report submitted by IDECK. As per the new tender, waste from each house will be transported in an auto. Compactor machines will be used to segregate garbage at identified places. Meanwhile, the salaries of pourakarmikas will be enhanced from Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,075. The number of pourakarmikas will also be increased from 7,000 to 11,000, said ruling leader in the BMP council H Ravindra.

Chandrashekar, who raised the issue, said that there had been irregularities while preparing the new tender. He alleged that the officials had joined hands with the contractors. "How did the commissioner, who always speaks of discipline, quality, time sense and transparency, approve this tender," he asked.

JDS member Padmanabha Reddy, Opposition leader B R Nanjundappa and Narendra Babu supported Chandrashekar, when he highlighted the statistics with regard to the garbage tender.

Reply opposed: In reply to the questions raised by the council members with regard to the garbage tender, Jairaj said that the tender process was in conformity to the KMC Act, and directed additional commissioner Gaurav Gupta to give more details about the tender. When Gupta came forward to give more details, Chandrashekar opposed it and demanded reply from the commissioner alone to all his questions.

Reacting to this, Jairaj said that as a commissioner he had the right to direct additional commissioners to give necessary details and asked Gupta to continue. Expressing his ire against Jairajs reply, Chandrashekar staged a walk out from the Council Hall and Narendra followed him.