Ludhiana MC faces flak over untraceable, GPS enabled e-rickshaws

Ludhiana: Despite being equipped with a global positioning system, MC officials have not been able to trace 80 of 350 e-rickshaws distributed among health branch employees for door-to-door garbage lifting and sanitation work. MC officials informed the chairman of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Committee and other members about this.
While they have a detailed list of employees who were issued the e-rickshaws, they have not been able to ascertain the whereabouts of 80. Officials have been given time till Feb 25 to provide a complete list of the e-rickshaws. Committee members visited the MC workshop on Hambran Road, where 40 e-rickshaws were parked for repair and demanded justification from MC officials about purchase and use of the e-rickshaws. MC officials said that they purchased the e-rickshaws under the 15th Finance Commission, initially buying 150 and then 200 e-rickshaws. Committee chairman Madan Lal Bagga called one of the employees to whom an e-rickshaw had been allocated, but he said that the vehicle was not with him and that he had handed it over to the workshop staff.
The total cost of the e-rickshaws is Rs 9.36 crore. Additional Rs 10 lakh was spent on installation of GPS in the e-rickshaws. Since the MC did not have adequate drivers to run the e-rickshaws, they handed them over to sanitation employees. However, it is not clear why the missing e-rickshaws could not be traced with GPS.
Committee chairman Madan Lal Bagga and other MLAs asked why the e-rickshaws had been given to the staff permanently instead of being kept in one place. They also asked how these were being charged. Officials replied that employees were charging the e-rickshaws at their homes. Committee members were unhappy with the absence of a specific charging point and described officials' attitude as "careless."
They said that employees should have been asked to keep the e-rickshaws in one place after completing their duties. Chairman Bagga asked officials to submit the records on Feb 25 and place all e-rickshaws in one place for inspection, failing which action will be taken against them.
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