The Chennai Corporation’s age-old system of evaluating trip sheets of garbage loads brought to its dumping yard has come under the scanner once again.
On Tuesday, the Corporation suspended five employees including an engineer for malpractice. Last Saturday, the civic body had suspended four employees for the illegal activity that had resulted in the loss of several lakh of rupees to the state exchequer.
The modus operandi is that additional trips are entered in the logbook resulting to more payment to the contractors engaged in clearing garbage in the city.
A press release from Ripon Buildings stated that an enquiry conducted into the final disposal of garbage in the Kodungaiyur dumping yard at north Chennai had revealed fabrication of data regarding the trucks offloading garbage. It was found that staffers were involved in fake documentation of 20 trucks over the past two days.
Subsequently Assistant Executive Engineer Mr K. G. Rajendran, three Conservancy Inspectors, Mr M. Arumugam, Mr R. Sureshkumar, Mr R. Selvaraj and Conservancy Supervisor Mr P.K. Harikumar were suspended pending a detailed enquiry.
A new team has been put in place to take care of the dumping yard, the release said. When contacted, Corporation Commissioner Mr P.W.C.
Dawidar said that new teams had been put in place to monitor the operations of the dumping yard and steps were being taken to prevent malpractices. “Errant staff or officials involved in such activities will not be spared,” the commissioner added.
According to Corporation sources the private contractor engaged in removal of solid waste is currently paid Rs 1469 per tonne of garbage.
Close to 1,000 tonnes of garbage are removed daily by the private firm. The total garbage generated in the city per day is estimated to be around 4,500 tonnes.