Hyderabad: Private contractors employed to desilt nalas have been allegedly claiming bills without removing the silt from nalas and stormwater drains. In this, they are said to be hand in glove with some engineers and Ramky staff.
Sources said the contractors had been repeatedly submitting the same social audit reports and photographs which had been approved by the civic body staff at the ground level. They said that private agencies, without desilting the city nalas and stormwater drains, had claimed that they had removed three lakh cubic metres of silt. If this is true, the city should see minimal inundation during heavy rain.
Highly placed sources in the corporation said that the contractors offer bribes to the civic body staff to get their bills cleared. Sources alleged that private agencies had influenced the Ramky staff at the Jawaharnagar dumping yard to generate invoices in their favour with regarding to dumping silt.
The corporation pays Rs 480.50 per cubic metre, including labour and transport charges, to carry dry silt to the Jawaharnagar dumping yard, 35 km from the silt removal point,.
The GHMC has not changed the process even after a Rs 1.2-crore scam in billing for nala desilting came to light.
This newspaper asked for details including the number of vehicles and their registration numbers used for desilting but the corporation refused to provide the data. Instead, officials said 12 per cent more silt had been desilted when compared to the previous year.
