With the Central zone of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) staring at a crisis, as the 10-year contract of the private concessionaire that has been hired to collect garbage from this area of the Capital is scheduled to end in November, civic body plans to provide a one-year extension to the existing agency to lift municipal waste, senior officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.
Delhi’s MCD areas comprise 12 zones and 250 wards, which cumulatively produce around 11,000 tonnes of garbage every day. Of this, the central zone, with 25 wards, produces around 1,000 tonnes of waste daily. The areas that fall under the Central zone include Daryaganj, Kalkaji, Sarita Vihar, Siddharth Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Andrews Ganj, and Amar Colony, among others.
A senior MCD official associated with the sanitation department said the contract of the existing contractor for the Central zone was due to end on November 18, but a new concessionaire cannot be appointed without the approval of the standing committee — an all-powerful panel that controls MCD’s purse strings and ratifies the agenda for discussion in the House.
Officials said that they have taken legal opinion, and proposals for administration sanction will now be put up directly before the house of councillors, scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
“We are taking the administrative approval from the house. The existing agency’s contract will be extended one year beyond November 18. Legal opinion says that extension can be granted as the standing committee has an advisory role. The matter related to new rate and agency related cases will remain pending at the standing committee level,” the official quoted above said.
HT reached out to the mayor a for comment, but she did not respond.
HT on October 25 had reported that the non-formation of the MCD standing committee has impacted around 150 policy matters, and around 20 of these policy matters, which were stuck at the standing committee-level, have been recalled by the executive wing.
A second municipal official said that a revised legal stance will impact a category of proposals.
“There are four kinds of proposals that need the standing committee’s approval. These include the layout plans for major development projects, audit reports, proposals of up to ₹5 crore and above, and rate and agency related policy matters. The revised stance will lead to proposals where the standing committee has an advisory role to be put before the house directly. But this may also lead to dilution of standing committee powers,” the official said.
The official said that rate and agency related matters will still remain stuck.
“The cases where the committees have an advisory role, the new opinion is that the house is competent to take direct decisions,” the official added.
The official said that administrative approval for biomining projects for cleaning 3 million tonne of waste at the Ghazipur landfill and 2 million tonne in Okhla will also be put up before the house on Tuesday.
“After the administrative approval is taken from the house, tenders will be invited and a new agency will be deployed. We hope the standing committee will be in place by the time the process is finalised,” the second official added.
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