Demand to deduct VMC officers’ salaries rejected

Vadodara: The district consumer forum turned down a case filed by a doctor couple requesting that amounts ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 should be deducted from the salaries of some Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) health department officers.
Dr Ramesh Kanani and his wife Mrudula had approached the consumer court in September 2013 claiming that the door-to-door garbage collection service of the civic body in their Subhanpura area was irregular. They submitted that the assistant municipal commissioner, health officer, sanitary inspector and a ward officer have been negligent and careless in their services. They informed the court that they have been paying the sanitation charges for their house in Sandhya Society in Subhanpura and the civic body is even collecting charges for door-to-door collection services.

In their application, the couple also stated that in normal situation, if any citizen of Vadodara city litters in public, the civic body slaps a fine ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. Despite written representation and paying charges for door-to-door garbage collection the VMC has shown faulty services and therefore amounts ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 should be deducted from salaries of these officers.

The couple also demanded a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh for mental harassment and legal costs.

Interestingly, during the hearing of the case, it came to light that the couple used to pressurize the contractor and driver of the services to take bio-medical waste. VMC informed the court that the services are regular in the complainant’s locality and they even have signatures and mobile phone numbers of house owners from where the garbage was collected. The forum upheld civic body’s argument that the couple filed the case because the contractor refused to take bio-medical waste.

Rejecting their application, the court observed that the couple’s complaint has no basis.