Chronicle Reporter, Bhopal, If we tell you that the yellow coloured Magic vehicles in which BMC transports waste are passenger vehicles you won’t believe.
But it is true that these garbage vehicles of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) are registered as passenger vehicles with the Transport Department. Now the question is why this was done. But the authorities do not have the answer to it.However, due to this mistake of officers, the BMC had to pay additional Rs 11000 for vehicle insurance.
The vehicle number MP4 DB 1311 is a municipal garbage vehicle (Magic auto), but in RTO documents it is registered as pickup i.e. passenger vehicle. The same is the situation of all the Magic vehicles of the BMC. This could be the negligence of BMC officers or result of some mess-up, but the civic body has to suffer loss of lakhs of rupees annually.
The corporation currently has more than 300 magic garbage vehicles. Out of these, 150 have been purchased to streamline the city’s sanitation system under the Cleanliness Mission during the last two years. However, all new Magic garbage vehicles have been insured as passenger vehicles (commercial).
Insurance company benefits
According to the sources, the BMC officials have benefited the insurance companies by registering garbage vehicles as passenger vehicles. The premium of Rs 11,000 was paid per vehicle instead of Rs 6000. However, according to the tender conditions, insurance is done by the company charging the lowest premium. The complaint in this regard was made by MIC member Mahesh Makwana to the mayor, but he took no action.
Rs 27 lakh extra payment made
In fact, the insurance cost of a loader vehicle is Rs 6000 while that of a passenger vehicle it is about Rs 17,000. In this case, about Rs. 42.50 lakh extra amount has been paid to insure the 250 Magic vehicles of the corporation.
Had the registration of Magic (garbage) vehicles of in the Transport Department been done in the loader category, then these vehicles would have been insured for just Rs 15.50 lakh instead of Rs 42.50 lakh. Thus BMC would have saved Rs 17 lakh.
Alok Sharma, Mayor, said it would be investigated if the registration of Magic vehicles with the Transport Department in the passenger category has been done deliberately or it is the result of negligence. If there is any irregularity, the guilty officers will not be spared.