SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, April 30: With the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) firing its garbage collection agency, Centre for Development Communication (CDC) recently, the city dwellers have once again started facing the irregular pickups of garbage from homes. After announcing the firing, the RMC has stated, it would itself collect garbage for now.
However, this is not the first time that an agency was first given a tender and later fired for not fulfilling the criteria of the contract. Before this, the RMC had fired two more agencies that had made similar promises to the RMC officials.
Before the CDC was given a contract, two companies, namely A to Z and Essel Infra were hired by RMC. The company A to Z was hired on July 1, 2011, while Essel signed a contract with RMC by the end of December in 2016.
As per Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijavargiya, “A to Z faced a situation very similar to CDC. Employees would be on strike most of the days and garbage collection was not regular throughout the city, which is why the company was then removed. Meanwhile, Essel Infra undertook a work area of 53 wards, but could not move further from 12-13 wards. They were removed due to negligence.”
Further elaborating on the issue, Dy Mayor Vijavargiya said, “Essel could not cover more areas not only because of the lesser number of vehicles, but also they did not have the proper infrastructure. Along with this, they could not properly take over the overall work, even if all the work was done by the RMC then.”
“In case of A to Z, they quoted a very less amount due to rate competition during the bid, as a result of which, they were not even able to pay their own employees. I guess it was around Rs 485 per ton to Rs 565 per ton, which is very less. This is why they were not able to pay their employees. Even CDC had lowered its rates during the bid. They should have also checked if they were signing a practical contract,” he added.
“A company should always make sure that they are or will be able to fulfill the terms and conditions of the contract before signing. Initially, during the agreement phase, they had agreed to it all, however, later they rescinded and said that meeting certain terms isn’t possible,” the Dy Mayor quoted.
While talking of the time periods that the companies served the city, Vijayvargiya said, “The CDC was hired by the end of 2021 and worked with us for almost a year, while A to Z was hired in 2011 and fired in 2013. Meanwhile, Essel worked for a period of around two to two and a half years between 2016 and 2019.”
On the other hand, sources on the condition of not being named have said, “No tractor was hired on rent without taking a bribe earlier. Around Rs 20 to 30 thousand were the ‘payment’ to hire a tractor. Similar cases have happened where officials would ask for bribes, even to clear the payment. I don’t exactly remember the name of the company that saw this. Regarding CDC, I cannot be completely sure about them being asked for a bribe, as I did not notice it happening.”
