First Chandigarh MC House meeting likely to be a stormy affair

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, January 23

The first Municipal Corporation House meeting is likely to be a stormy affair tomorrow as the Opposition will take on the ruling BJP over the agenda of processing dry garbage at Rs6 crore for a year.

The MC has proposed to spend Rs2.5 crore on the upgrade and repair of the existing dry waste plant and Rs50 lakh on buying a shredder, while Rs3 crore is the one-year cost of running the waste processing plant in Sector 25.

Senior AAP leader and former councillor Chandermukhi Sharma said, “According to the consultant, the IIT, Roorkee, all machines are already 12 years old, which is practically the life of such machines. And these machines cannot be upgraded or repaired. Then, how come they are going to spend such a huge amount on it. They should bring in new technology or set up a new machine here.”

“This agenda is in violation of the consultant’s report. Either the Mayor is incompetent and if that is not the case, she should take action against the officers who have brought the agenda or else the Mayor should resign at her first House meeting,” he said.

The report had concluded, “For dry or mixed waste, even after repairs/maintenance of the existing machinery, shredder and trommels, the existing plant will at best handle 60 to 65 tonnes per day (TPD). Hence, if the corporation expects the plant to treat 200 TPD (40 per cent of the 500 TPD), additional new equipment will be required.”

The city AAP discussed the issue at its pre-house meeting. All councillors were briefed about the case. They are going to raise the matter in the House tomorrow. A Congress leader said they would also question the BJP over it.

On her part, Mayor Sarabjit Kaur said, “We cannot keep waiting for new technology to be set up here. Some arrangements have to be made as the unprocessed waste is piling up at the dumping ground. Last year, it could not be done due to the model code of conduct ahead of the MC poll.”

Even during the mayoral poll, huge ruckus was witnessed in the House. AAP had created a high drama after the BJP Mayor won accusing the saffron party of favouritism after cross-voting.

According to the MC, at present, about 60-70 metric tonnes of dry waste per day is getting processed, while the city produces about 200 metric tonnes of dry waste daily. The remaining is thrown at the dumping ground. Officers claim that with the new plan, the entire garbage would be processed daily.?

Other agenda items

• Election of Finance and Contract Committee members. The five members will be elected unopposed as there are only five candidates
• Re-constitution of three other committees of the MC
• Rs77-crore project for bio-mining of second part of the waste at the Dadu Majra dumping ground

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