PMC to purchase solid waste management equipment

PATNA: After an inactive span of seven years, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has finally woken up from deep slumber when its empowered standing committee (ESC) at a meeting on Wednesday decided to purchase equipment for solid waste management plan.
The state government had released a sum of Rs 27 crore for the purchase of various equipment in 2007.But the civic body could spent only Rs 4 crore while rest of the fund had been lying unused.
Altogether 14 types of equipment are to be purchased and tender process has already been completed for the purchase of six types of equipment.
The equipment include, 14 small and seven big compactors, ten loader back hoe, 12 skid steer loader, 1950 garbage containers and four jetting-cum-suction machines. Once the proceedings are prepared and Mayor Afzal Imam signs on the proceedings, the work order will be given for the purchase of the equipment.
Both commissioner Kuldip Narayan and the Mayor were present at the Wednesday's meeting.
The state urban development and housing department few days ago threatened to take away the solid waste management project from the PMC in case the scheme was deferred more.
The Patna high court too on Tuesday had rebuked the civic body for the unhygienic conditions of the city. The bench of Justice V N Sinha and Justice P K Jha had said that Patna is the dirtiest capital city of the country. It had also observed there are two types of cities inside Patna-one is clean, found around the residences of VIPs, and the other is full of filth and garbage.