Engineers to face action for lapse

New Delhi: The spat between North mayor Ravinder Gupta and leader of the house Yogender Chandolia over waste disposal contracts escalated on Wednesday with the latter writing to the BJP state president Satish Upadhyay alleging corruption and demanding a CBI inquiry into the issue.
The opposition also shot off a letter to lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung demanding an independent inquiry.North commissioner PK Gupta said that disciplinary action will be taken against the three engineers of the auto department for giving misleading figures to the mayor.
The mayor's contention that waste could be disposed in just Rs 500 per tonne was based solely on transportation costs given by the auto department. It did not take into account cost of employing labour, equipment required for complying with the environment regulations mandated by NGT, the Supreme Court and the Manual Scavenging Act.
North Corporation's department of environment management services additional commissioner Deepak Hastir said that documents provided by the engineers mention that the figures do not include the dhalao attendants' pay and maintenance charges. The report has, thus, misled the mayor.
"Action will be taken against the officials for insubordination. Any information that the mayor demands has to go through the commissioner. By sidelining the commissioner and not taking other departments into consideration, the report has become one-sided and misleading. This led to the rates quoted by participants in an open tender getting challenged and causing such a huge controversy," Hastir said.
The report sent by the engineers to the mayor said that garbage transportation cost in Narela zone, where the corporation itself undertakes operations, is Rs 566.89 per metric tonne. Garbage transportation by hired trucks would cost Rs 544.93 per metric tonne.