As desilting works in the city have come to a halt, all the major nullahs in the city have clogged up, causing a lot of inconvenience to locals. To tackle this problem, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to appoint non-government organisations to remove floating material in the nullahs.
According to civic officials, the BMC has received many complaints of clogging of major as well as minor nullahs. BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta has directed to appoint NGOs at the contract labour level to streamline the nullahs’ flow by removing floating material. Accordingly, 1,000 contractual labourers will be provided in some of the administrative wards, whereas some wards will be given 500 labourers.
Raising the point in the civic standing committee meeting, Trishna Vishwasrao from Shiv Sena said with nullah cleaning works coming to a halt, major nullahs have been overflowing with garbage. This has caused serious health problems, especially in suburban areas. The BMC has failed to take action despite making several complaints, she said.
The BMC had given desilting contractors for two years — 2015-16 and 2016-17. But, due to corruption exposed in the desilting scam, it revoked the contracts and invited tenders again. However, contractors bid as high as 300 per cent than the base price, which made officials to scrap the entire process again.
