Panchkula municipality orders road cleaning work amid Monsoon, residents call it hogwash

Panchkula Municipality Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said tenders worth Rs 1 crore have been allotted to various firms for cleaning of road-gullies and manholes of the city.

Residents of the city, who had been demanding the cleaning of manholes and road-gullies since May this year, however, question the rationale behind the move, asking why work contracts were awarded at a time when Monsoon had already engulfed the whole of Haryana.

Goyal claimed that tenders were awarded by the municipal corporation on Tuesday this week, with all the agencies being instructed to start work immediately and save people from the chaos caused by the rains.

Incidentally on June 3, while speaking to the Indian Express, Goyal had claimed that tenders have already been issued for the cleaning of road gullies et al and “work would begin within a week.” A quick study of the tenders passed as per the municipal corporation’s website had, however, debunked his claims.

Speaking about the fresh tenders, Goyal said a meeting with the concerned Superintendent Engineer, Executive Engineer, Sub-Divisional Officer and Junior Engineer has already been held during which instructions were passed to ensure “immediate cleaning of road-gullies under strict and regular monitoring.” Goyal has said that work should be carried out near all the main squares of the city on a priority basis, as water gets accumulated after the rains due to lack of proper drainage near these squares.

The Mayor said that tenders worth about rupees one crore have been given to different agencies “so that work can be done simultaneously at all places.” He added, “Earlier, only one or two agencies were given the responsibility of finishing all the work, due to which cleaning progressed at a slow pace. But now, areas have been divided and put under the purview of officers. In any area, where the road is not cleared, the responsibility would lie with the agency solely along with the concerned officer.”

Residents, however, deemed the whole process as an exercise in futility.

President of the Citizen Welfare Association of Panchkula city, Sk Naiyar, said, “Allotting tenders at a time when the rains have already begun is of no use and is a complete sham. This only goes to show the high level of corruption involved in municipal corporation office. The work that has been allotted is of no use now. With rains already overhead, the garbage taken out from road-gullies will flow right back inside and any repairs made will not hold.”

Naiyar said that while work did start in Sector 15, it had to be immediately stopped due to showers . “They have not come back since,” he said, adding, “There is no one to check if the said amount paid for the tenders is even the actual cost of the work. The corporation does not care about taxpayer’s money.”

Sunil Jain, resident of Sector 11, whose sector along with sector 4 has been allotted tenders worth more than Rs 13 lakh, said, “The cost for the work is too high and the work has not even started. Monsoon is already here. This is clearly just an eyewash. If they wanted some work to be done, they should have passed the tender in May.”

Tenders worth Rs 6.4 lakh for Sectors 7 and 8, Rs 13.81 Lakh for Sectors 8 and 9, Rs 5.4 Lakh for Sector 15, Rs 13.81 for Village Abhaypur and Sector 14, Rs 13.62 lakh for Sector 4 and 11, Rs 7.82 lakh for Sector 21, Rs 7.63 lakh for Sector 20, Rs 10.42 lakh for Sector 25 and Rs 9.3 lakh have been allotted for Sector 26.

The tender for Sector 19 has been recalled. A tender of Rs 9.53 lakh was floated to clear the road lane of the sector, but the applicant agency had asked for 4 per cent more than the amount offered. The municipal officials had asked to reduce some amount, but the agency was not ready and hence the tender has been recalled.

Similarly, the tender of Sector 12 and 12A has also been recalled due to the high amount.