KOCHI: In a damning indictment of the waste management by the Aluva Municipality, the Local Fund Audit Report of the State Government for the year 2014-15, released this year, has found large scale irregularities in transporting waste from Aluva to the Brahmapuram plant of Kochi Corporation and objected to a spending of Rs 30.97 lakh. The report has detected that even bikes and cars were used to transport tonnes of waste! These all point to the fake trip sheets submitted by the contractors to claim amounts which they did not spend for transporting waste.
The local fund audit officials unearthed this after checking the registration number of the vehicles which were submitted by the contractors as being used for transporting waste, on the website of the State Motor Vehicles Department. They had submitted that these were lorries used for the purpose and on checking it was revealed that these were actually bikes and cars. The Local Fund Audit Department which rejected the bills submitted by a contractor claiming Rs 1.47 lakh after transporting waste in an Innova, another vehicle not registered in Kerala, a Yamaha motor bike, two Hero Honda motor bikes and an Indica car, ordered to reclaim the amount either from the contractor or the health inspector, as it is impossible to transport waste in such vehicles.
The audit report has also found that the waste removal project which got the administrative and technical approval for Rs 30 lakh had a cost overrun of Rs 97,440. Though V.M. Zakeer Babu has been granted Rs 2.29 lakh for removing waste, the trip sheets have not been attested by officials and their authenticity is not clear. It is also not clear at a time when the Aluva municipality had an own vehicle to remove waste which was used for five months, why three contractors were selected for the purpose. It was found that the registration of one vehicle used by Zakeer was struck down by the MV Department as it was too old. This vehicle carried seven tonnes of waste to Brahmapuram! BJP councilor in the municipality A.C. Santhosh Kumar has demanded a Vigilance inquiry into the issue. UDF ruled the municipality last term and is ruling this term.
