Hyderabad: Questions are being raised over the GHMC paying Rs 1.5 crore to contractors for desilting the city’s nalas. In certain Assembly constituencies, a single contractor has carried out the entire de-silting work. However, the civic body has not furnished details of the total quantity of silt removed.
Mr B. Sambi Reddy, who had filed an RTI query, said, “The GHMC should clarify why the bills were not paid for the last five months (since April 2015) and why they are cleared now. The fact that there was only one contractor for the whole Assembly constituency / division shows the extent of corruption in quoting tenders.
The total quantity of earth removed from these small nalas should be furnished. For example, the bill for the work done from Rahmatnagar fish market to Vengal Raonagar was Rs 2.40 lakh while another bill for work done from the Housing Board to IDL Cheruvu was Rs 2.59 lakh; anyone would understand the extent of miscalculation in these claims.”
“An inquiry committee should be set up immediately to verify the details of the work really done with regard to desilting of 321 nalas for which Rs 28.48 crore was sanctioned. As per a survey done by a private group in 2011-12, there was a huge discrepancy, to the extent of 30 per cent. It stated that if those contractors were to be blacklisted and the concerned officials suspended then and there, this sort of corruption would not have taken place,” added Mr Sambi Reddy.
No official from the Health and Sanitation department was ready to comment on the issue despite the RTI answer coming from the same department.
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