SDMC stops lifting biomedical waste from Covid centre

NEW DELHI: Taking note of the fact that there were no patients at Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has discontinued the services for sanitation and lifting of biomedical waste.
Former leader of the house Narendra Chawla said that the contract given for the services would be resumed if required. The decision has also been taken as the civic body is running short of funds, he added.
“Since there is no patient at the centre and we also don’t have enough funds to pay the concessionaire, the services have been put on hold. We are already facing problems in paying regular salaries and trying to avoid additional burden,” he said.
Earlier, in January, the civic body had expressed its inconvenience over continuing the services due to non-payment of the amount incurred on maintenance by the Delhi government.
SDMC had demanded Rs 3 crore for settling the pending bill but there was no reply from the other side, said Chawla.
However, later in March-April, SDMC again issued a contract to a private company for continuing the maintenance work at the centre after the second wave of Covid-19 hit the city.
In May 2020, the central government had decided to set up the centre at Radha Soami Satsang Complex in Chhatarpur.
“While SDMC was assigned the duty of maintaining housekeeping and sanitation services, it was decided during several meetings and inspections that the Delhi government will bear the cost for housekeeping services. Later, the DEMS department deployed a total of 200 staff through a private concessionaire. But no expenditure was reimbursed,” claimed Chawla.