The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday alleged that Bengaluru’s garbage contractors are looting Rs 89.5 crore from the BBMP in the name of deploying more auto tippers.
According to BBMP, the city needs 4,466 auto tippers in order to collect waste from every household. However, there are 2,580 registered auto tippers in Bengaluru and of these, only 1,273 are currently operational.
As per the BBMP norms, every 750 households require one auto tipper. BBMP sources say that in order to make up for the shortage in auto tippers, the contractors have been deploying pourakarmikas (civic workers) to pick up the trash and dump it into compactors.
As per 2019-20 budget figures of BBMP, Rs 750 crore was allocated for solid waste management, of which, Rs 375 crore was allocated for pourakarmikas and the remaining for auto tippers and cleaning staff.
According to Mohan Dasari, President of AAP Bengaluru, the contractors have been collecting money for deploying all the 2,580 auto tippers, when only 1,273 autos operate daily, thereby conning the BBMP of crores of rupees.
BBMP allocates Rs 57,000 per month to each auto tipper and the 1,273 working autos would have cost Rs 87 crore per annum. However, the contractors have been billing the Palike for all 2,580 auto tippers, thereby escalating the cost to Rs 176.5 crore per annum.
“Surprisingly, for total of 4466 autos required for the city, the total amount comes to around Rs 305 crore and if we look at the budget allocation, it's been allocated as per micro plan, means for 4,466 auto tippers. So, it is evident that during last few years, fake figures have been given to the BBMP to siphon off hundreds of crores of honest taxpayer's money,” Dasari added.
Although the information has been available to the BBMP, no action has been taken against the garbage contractors. Dasari said that the Aam Aadmi Party would file a complaint with the Lokayukta, Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force in the coming days.
“AAP insists that the money siphoned off on account of these scams is the tax money from hard-earned income of honest citizens and must be recovered from the contractors, officials and corporators of 198 wards,” Dasari added.
Bengaluru’s civic body, in a bid to solve the scam involving garbage contractors, had issued RMID cards to each of them in May. The card is supposed to be scanned through a mobile app, which would then intimate the BBMP that the auto tipper has been deployed for duty.
According to Randeep, Special Commissioner, BBMP, the civic body will make GPS tracking of auto tippers mandatory in order to avoid scams. He said that the GPS system would be introduced in the next two months.