RTI shows high sanitation and cleaning bill for Gurgaon
6 Sep, 2012In a reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has provided area-wise details of the payments made for sanitation and clean-up works on roads and sectors of Gurgaon by private contractors. The data shows that for January, February and March 2012, Rs 17 lakh, Rs 17 lakh and Rs 26 lakh respectively were paid to over 12 contractors.
The data also reveals that different contractors were paid for cleaning work in same sector in the same months e.g. between January and March, Sheetla Mata road and Palam Vihar road was cleaned up by different contractors five times. Similarly, in January HUDA paid O P Sharma Contractors Rs 4.47 lakh for working in Sectors 5, 6, 12, 12A, 18, Sheetla Mata Mandir Road and Palam Vihar Road. In the same month another contractor Ansh Enterprises was paid Rs 4.91 lakh for carrying out sanitation and cleaning up of the roads in 12, 12A, 5 and Sheetla Mata Mandir Road and Palam Vihar Road. And again in the same month another contractor, M/s Ram Premi Contractor, was paid Rs 4.69 lakh for working in Sector 22 The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. alone.
The RTI applicant has claimed that the condition of the roads has not improved much and HUDA has kept on paying the contractors again and again without checking the quality of work.