North MCD: Oppn trains guns on Mayor, Leader of House

All guns were trained at the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation over alleged corruption cases and irregularities in tender allotment when the Congress, the principal Opposition in North MCD, approached Lieutenant Governor for immediate intervention and fair inquiry into the allegations levelled by the Leader of the House against Mayor Ravinder Gupta.

Meanwhile, the Mayor said that he is being targeted within the party and by Opposition for detecting irregularities. “I had turned down the proposal of the Standing Committee smelling a scam in allotment of contract to private companies for solid waste collection and transportation in Sadar Paharganj Zone, City Zone, Karol Bagh Zone and Narela Zone and now I am being targeted. I personally welcome any inquiry in this regard,” said Gupta.

Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel wrote a letter to Najeeb Jung demanding an independent inquiry into the scam of contracting out the work of solid waste collection and transportation to landfill sites to private companies. He said that a big scam has taken place in allotting contract of solid waste collection and transportation to private companies for Sadar Paharganj Zone, City Zone, Karol Bagh Zone and Narela Zone.

“The contracts of the companies namely M/s A G Enviro Infra, M/s Delhi Waste Management and M/s Metro Waste Handling Cell ended about two years ago and it was being renewed again and again. It was first given to them in 2005,” said Goel. He also informed that the current contract is due to end on March 31.

The LoP added that fresh tenders were invited for the next financial year and the contracts were allotted to the same companies. The bid given by these companies were one-and-a-half times higher than the existing rates. He said that recently Mayor Ravinder Gupta and Leader of House Yogender Chandolia had locked horns over allotment of these contracts in the North MCD meeting and if the solid waste is collected by North Corporation by procuring adequate number of trucks, a huge amount of public money can be saved.

Reacting over the allegations, Chandolia said that the matter should be investigated by the CBI in order to unravel the truth. He said that the contracts to the companies were allotted in 2005 when Congress party was in power and the terms and conditions of the contracts were also decided by their leaders.

“The contract was allotted at the rate of Rs 644 per metric tonne in 2005 during their regime which increased to Rs 1,100 per metric tonne now with an increase of 5 per cent per year as per the condition approved for the contracts. The rates finalised for future are almost similar to this. CBI inquiry must be conducted into this matter to delve into the fact which is that there is no scam,” he added.