Mira-Bhayandar: The Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) is under the scanner for alleged anomalies in the ₹750 crore garbage lifting tender process as former city president of the BJP Ravi Vyas has levelled allegations of favouritism against the civic administration to certain politically-backed bidders.
After shying away from floating tenders for more than five years, the MBMC recently invited combined bids for Zone 1 and Zone II carrying an estimated price tag of ₹64 crore and ₹92 crore annually. Four bidders including Global Waste Management, Konark, Antony Waste Handling and R and B Infra were in the race to bag the multi-crore contract envisaging lifting of garbage from the twin-city and ferrying it to the dump yard at Dhaavgi village in Uttan.
BJP cites 'favoritism' as main reason
“Despite making a provision of providing a new fleet of garbage lifting trucks, certain highly placed officers misused their powers and created distortions in the tender procurement process by escalating the budgetary allocations to astronomical levels. This has translated into a loss of more than ₹500 crore to the civic exchequer, which is the hard-earned money of taxpayers,” alleged Vyas who has demanded immediate rollback of work orders issued to both the companies on July 7 and March 14, 2023, while seeking an Anti Corruption Bureau probe into the entire tender allotment process.
Writ petition to HC
Citing anomalies like tailoring the eligibility criteria to suit predetermined bidders, one of the companies had also sought judicial intervention by filing a writ petition (15765) in the High Court.
Armed with evidence, the petitioner stated that while Global had been blacklisted by another civic body, documents submitted by Konark showed that it was also not eligible to participate in the bidding process. The next hearing is scheduled for January 25.
