Midnight tenders kick up dust in BBMP Council meet

Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy and the BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel on Friday drew flak from the corporators for floating garbage tenders ‘without taking the Council into confidence.’

The Mayor had called a meeting of the Council on Friday exclusively to discuss garbage tenders, but the short-term tenders for garbage collection were floated on the website on Thursday night itself.

Corporators cutting across party lines termed the action of the Palike an ‘attempt to demean the Council and the standing committee on health’.

The special meeting began with Floor Leader of the House N Nagaraju reading out the measures to be taken to tackle garbage crisis in the City. He said the tenders floated at midnight had given room for criticism. However, Nagaraju said it was done so to save the Palike losses.

“The BBMP was under pressure in the wake of the High Court directive to initiate measures to tackle garbage problem in the City within a month,” he said.

Nagaraju, however, was critical of restricting the participation only for class-I contractors.
“What skills are required to sweep the City roads? Invite ward-wise tenders instead of dividing it into packages. The solvency amount of ten per cent has also deterred poor unemployed youth from applying for the tender,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition M K Gunashekar likened the Council Meeting to engagement after marriage.

“You floated tenders a day before convening a Council meeting to discuss the garbage scenario. Did you seek our (Council’s) opinion before floating tenders” asked Gunashekar.

He questioned how the tenders were invited without bringing the matter to the notice of the BBMP standing committee. “This is a mockery of the Transparency Act,” Gunashekar remarked.

Responding to a volley of allegations, Commissioner Goel said he exercised the powers conferred on him by the Council to deal with the garbage crisis in the City.

Goel told the House that the short-term tenders were floated as per the legal procedure through e-procurement portal of the State government.

“We have incorporated many provisions such as solvency up to 10 per cent of the total yearly contract for applicants from general category and one per cent of the total annual contract for the SC/ST applicants. We made this provision to allow more citizens to participate,” he added.

His statement could not convince the corporators who called it a conspiracy to favour a section of people.

Penalty on pets

Come October 1, you will have to pay a penalty of Rs 50, if your pet defecates or urinates in public in Bangalore. However, this is not applicable on stray dogs found abundantly in the City.

The Palike Council on Friday passed a resolution against the nuisance by the pets in addition to penalties on various offences such as throwing garbage in vacant site, spitting or urinating in public, non-segregation of garbage at source etc. While the BBMP has been contemplating imposing penalties on people defecating, urinating and spitting in public, the clause on pet animals has come as a rude shock for many. A BBMP officer said that the clause is added to check the stray cattle menace.