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Sweeping machines minting money
Sweeping machines in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have become new money minting machines for private agencies and officials. The contractors hand in glove with civic body officials have been claiming bills without even sweeping the roads.
Hyderabad: Sweeping machines in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have become new money minting machines for private agencies and officials. The contractors hand in glove with civic body officials have been claiming bills without even sweeping the roads.
This has been not only leaking the corporation's revenue but also turning the roads dirtier after a rainy day.The GHMC on August 21, 2015 entered into an agreement with Marlin infra - Lion Services to maintain and operate sweeping machines. As per the agreement, the sweeping machines should work for 10 hours from 9 pm to 7 am on daily basis.
Each sweeping machine should sweep 60km per day. The civic body has been paying Rs 2,457 per hour to sweep the city roads. The corporation has been spending Rs 7.37 lakh per machine every month. Overall, the corporation has been spending Rs 1.84 crore on 26 sweeping machines.
Highly-placed sources in the GHMC told The Hans India that the sweeping machines have been sweeping only a lane adjacent to the road divider but not all lanes. Sources said that most of the sweeping machines which were to work for 10 hours are working only for 3 hours and not taking the social audit. Sources also said due to apathy of the GHMC officials, the private contractors are maintaining everything on paper but not on the ground.
Sources claimed that the private agencies, hand in glove with corporation officials, have not only claiming full amounts in the bills but also collecting maintenance charges. "More than 60 per cent bills are fake. Due to the negligence of GHMC, private agencies and ground-level staff have been swindling several crores of rupees," said the sources.
A senior GHMC official accepting that there are some irregularities in the sweeping machines operation said the civic body will make surprise inspection to take stringent action. He said the civic body is spending Rs 30.78 crore annually to clean 2,000km arterial roads in the city.
By Maddy Deekshith
