The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s decision to terminate the agreement with the contractor handling the Deonar dumping ground might cost it financially and also land it in legal hassles.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s decision to terminate the agreement with the contractor handling the Deonar dumping ground might cost it financially and also land it in legal hassles. Terming the contract termination decision as illegal and wrongful, the contractor has demanded a refund of Rs 36.91 crore from the civic body. He has also threatened to take legal action against the BMC for failing to pay the amount.
The Deonar dumping ground was handed over to M/s Tatva Global Environment Deonar Ltd. (TGEDL) on DBOOT (Design, Build, Own, Operate & Transfer) basis in 2009 for its scientific closure. However, citing breaches in the contract conditions, the civic body decided to terminate contract from January 31.
However, the contractor has blamed the BMC for not fulfilling the contract conditions. In a notice sent to the civic body, M/s Tatva Global has said that the BMC failed to execute a land lease agreement with them. Furthermore, the civic body failed to limit the quantity of waste from being dumped at Deonar site and also did not make timely payments, the notice said.
The contractor has claimed Rs 10.29 crore as hold payment/interest amount for period from January 2012-December 2015. The other payments are for running bill for the period January 1-31, 2016 and penalty amount, which was levied for the period of December 2010-December 2015.
Raising the issue in the civic standing committee on Wednesday, Congress corporator Sheetal Mhatre said, “The local residents suffered a lot of problems due to incompetence of the contractor. But still he is literally threatening the corporation by saying that it will take the legal course of action. The civic body should give a fitting reply to him”.
Rais Shaikh, Samajwadi party leader in the civic body said the BMC should have sent a negligence notice to the contractor for the fire that broke out at the Deonar dumping ground when the dumping plot was still in his possession. “The fire broke out on January 28 and the contractor’s agreement was terminated only on January 31. Therefore when such a massive fire broke out at the dumping ground the contractor should have had the man and machinery to control it,” said Mr Shaikh.
