Rubbish mafia can’t halt tender: Govt

Rubbish mafia can’t halt tender: Govt
Bangalore:

The State government has vowed to go ahead with its global tender for garbage disposal, even as a powerful rubbish lobby has thrown the spanner in the whole tendering process by obtaining a stay from the high court.


The “garbage mafia”, the BJP government says, has turned Bangalore from a garden city into a garbage city.

Despite putting pressure on garbage contractors, the scene had not improved. Eventually, the government floated a global tender two months ago to bring in a garbage disposal system of international standards and get rid of the menace in the city.
But the global tender of more than Rs 100 crore was set to create discomfort for those already engaged in the business. They knocked the doors of the Karnataka High Court and obtained a stay against the entire process.

Since the tenders were invited via the e-route, under the e-tendering process, the government officials said they were unaware about how many people had participated in the tendering process.

On Saturday, City in-charge minister R Ashok brought the issue back into focus by declaring that the government would not succumb to the pressure created by any lobby.
“There is a lobby active in Bangalore which has turned the city into a heap of garbage. We will counter them, get the stay vacated and bring in a garbage disposal mechanism of international standard,” Ashok told mediapersons at Bommanahalli ward, where he launched a special door-to-door garbage collection system.


Under this system, people are required to deposit wet garbage in green buckets and solid waste in red buckets. The garbage collection contract costing Rs 1.6 crore for the BBMP is meant for the 16 wards under the Bommanahalli BBMP zone.
On December 31, Chief Minister Yeddyurappa had admitted in the Assembly that there was a garbage contractors’ mafia operating in Bangalore and his government was ready to hold any type of inquiry and penalise the culprits.

The chief minister had said the government would take action, including blacklisting the contractors, for shoddy job. A meeting of MLAs and ministers was to be convened to adopt a suitable system to clear solid waste. The Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, too, had found irregularities in the execution of works by the garbage contractors.