Kochi corporation secretary claims non-action by council led to contract renewal with Brahmapuram plant operator

KOCHI: Kochi corporation secretary on Tuesday informed the Kerala high court that he had opposed the renewal of the contract with the operator of Brahmapuram plant after one year of operation but the corporation council did not act on it.
“Since I assumed office, I was not satisfied with the clauses of this contract so I had given my dissent. The actual contract was for two years and if it is satisfactory after the completion of one year, the same contractor can be continued.That was the actual condition mentioned in the contract. I had given my dissent and I had stopped the contractor after completion of one year. On March 2, I have given my dissent note and I stopped. The council is yet to approve my dissent,” the corporation secretary told the court.
The quality of the contractor’s work was found unsatisfactory, the secretary added.
The secretary’s submission was while being quizzed by a division bench comprising justices SV Bhatti and Basant Balaji about the manner in which the contract was awarded and how much money was being paid to the contractor. After looking at the files produced by the secretary, the court said.
Responding to the court’s query, the secretary submitted that Rs 31 crore has been paid to the contractor until now and the net value of the contract is Rs 30 lakh per month.
The court asked the secretary to get the account statements of all the payments to the contractor under different heads certified by the accounts department of the corporation and submit them to the court.
Whichever official tries to dupe the secretary will be summoned to the court, the bench warned while stating that the documents produced before it regarding the contract are relatively incomplete, as they do not reveal the full expenditure incurred for the waste collection, handling, and management by the operator.
The court also said it wanted to see the files related to the awarding of the contract.
Following the secretary’s submission, the court said it had noted the remarks of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board about the Brahmapuram site but it now wants the board to focus on the activities aimed at preventing the fire from recurring.
The court then said the local self-government bodies were carrying out their primary duties well decades ago but their performance is going down.
“The reason is the officer who has a commitment to the cause cannot get directly involved in it,” the court said while stating that private operators, who were given contracts by the local bodies, try to maximize the profit.
The court also said local bodies were escaping from their responsibility by giving contracts to private operators.
Further, the court said during the hearing that action being taken for protecting the environment is not in tune with the developmental activities in the state.
“We don’t say that the state has travelled backwards. We say the development undertaken is not commensurate with the other areas. What is the per capita income growth in 20 years? What are the welfare measures? What is the standard of living? If we take all those parameters into consideration, to what extent our environment is degraded?”
Bitter experience from the Brahmapuram site makes the court cautious about accepting any of the reports by the authorities, the court added.
The court then pointed out that Nava Kerala Mission, which is headed by the chief minister, had taken a decision earlier to implement the solid waste management rules.
Asking the government to implement its decision, the court told the additional chief secretary of the Local Self Government Department, “Now, what we want is that further decisions, you may, as our observation, inform Nava Kerala Mission that unless and until the directives go, the system is not going to change at all. For the present, we do not want to include these aspects in our orders”.
On Tuesday, the court also appreciated the efforts of the firefighters who toiled day and night to douse the fire and asked the state government to consider giving awards to those firefighters who were at the frontline.
They completed a herculean task and the consequences would have been unimaginable if the fire had spread to the neighbouring areas, the court said.
“We call upon the Director General, Kerala Fire and Rescue Services to convey our appreciation now placed on record to each one of the personnel who has worked without differentiating the day and night. At the appropriate stage of the proceedings, this Court would also observe suitable awards and recognition by the State Government to the frontline firefighters,” the court said in an interim order.