Delhi: AAP alleges Rs 84 crore scam in garbage processing, MCD rejects allegations

The AAP on Saturday alleged a scam in garbage processing at a landfill site by the city’s civic body, saying tenders were awarded for it at an “inflated rate” in 2020, a charge denied by the BJP-controlled MCD. The Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party claimed it had exposed a “massive garbage-processing scam amounting to Rs 84 crore”.

“Why did the BJP award the tender (for garbage processing) at an inflated price of Rs 3,250 per metric tonne (MT) when it was possible to issue a tender at Rs 400 per metric tonne” Vikas Goel, former leader of opposition in the erstwhile New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), asked at a press conference here.

The civic body unnecessarily paid Rs 2,850 extra per tonne. Hence, “it is a clear cut scam of Rs 84 crore,” he charged. Former leader of opposition in the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) Manoj Tyagi demanded that this “scam” be investigated.

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“The loss of taxpayers’ money should be compensated by auctioning the houses of politicians,” he said. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) dismissed the ruling party’s allegations as “a futile attempt to malign the corporation”.

“It has come to the notice of Municipal Corporation of Delhi that a false claim is doing rounds that MCD has suffered a scam or loss of Rs 84 crore on account of allotting tender right to a company to lift RDF (refuse derived fuel) from Bhalswa landfill site at the rate of Rs 3,250 per metric tonne in February 2020,” the civic body said in a statement.

“The allegation arises from the fact that in a recent tender called for lifting of RDF from the landfill sites, the right to lift the RDF has been allotted at the rate of Rs 400 per metric tonne in August 2022. This difference in the rates is the basis of the allegation of loss or scam,” it said.

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The corporation has been continuously getting the rate of transportation for disposal of waste from its landfill sites “reduced”, it claimed. The MCD said the tender process has been “transparent and open”. Lifting waste from a landfill site is something which cannot be postponed or withheld at any cost.

The lowest bidder was awarded the transportation right at Rs 3,250 per MT in February 2020. This contract subsisted only during the three months of Covid-related lockdown, it said. With the relaxation in lockdown in May 2020, the MCD said, it floated a fresh tender and allotted the transportation right at a lower rate of Rs 1,807.74 per MT, it said. This is not all. The corporation kept looking for further reduction in transportation cost and allotted it at a reduced cost of Rs 1,746 per MT in December 2021, it added.

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