Corp to buy new kitchen bins and study status of old ones

Thiruvananthapuram: While criticism mounts on the city corporation for failure in maintenance of kitchen bins, the health standing committee is negotiating with the lowest bidder for fresh purchase of kitchen bins and plans to launch a survey on the operational status of such bins.
The survey will be carried out by NSS volunteers using the ‘Smart Trivandrum’ mobile app. The corporation had installed 53,000 kitchen bins in various houses across 100 wards. The present status of these bins will be assessed in the survey.
Based on the data collected from the survey, corporation wants to engage Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) workers for the maintenance of kitchen bins also. Training for HKS workers in bio-degradable waste management has been completed in 72 wards.
The state government launched the service of HKS primarily for non-biodegradable waste collection from households. The civic body, which recently invited an expression of interest for the purchase of kitchen bins, received response from four firms .The negotiation is being done with the lowest bidder, who has reportedly quoted an amount less than Rs 1,500 per bin.
Earlier, the civic body had distributed kitchen bins at Rs 1,800 per bin. The move comes in the wake of strong objection from BJP. Even in the special council held on Thursday, BJP levelled allegations of corruption in the purchase of kitchen bins during the tenure of the previous council. Proper supply of inoculum and coir pith has been a challenge for corporation due to which many residents had backed out from the decentralized waste management. The audit report for 2019-20 also listed lapses on the part of the civic body.
It included shortcomings in stocking, lapses in collection of beneficiary share and distribution of inoculum. The report noted that the corporation spent Rs 73.47 lakh between 2017-18 and 2020-21 as spill over works for this project. In 2019-20, the corporation had purchased 45,440 packets of inoculum. In 2020-21, 1,07,960 packets were purchased. But the audit report says that there wasn’t any proportionate increase in the number of kitchen bins.
According to BJP councillors, the project which is facing vigilance probe should be cancelled.
“They failed to provide inoculum and coir pith and the system failed. The tender process and purchase have been riddled with irregularities,” said BJP councillor AnilKumar.
Health standing committee chairperson Jameela Sreedharan said that corporation is heading in the right direction.
“We will get a fair idea on the present state of kitchen bins after the survey. New purchase will be finalized after we complete the negotiation process,” she said.