THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the city corporation and Suchitwa Mission have disowned Sunage Ecosystems Private Ltd after the illegal dumping of waste in Tamil Nadu, both bodies have now come under criticism from opposition parties for an alleged “shady deal” with the service provider.
Both the UDF and BJP at the corporation council alleged that the LDF-led ruling front engaged the agency that lacks eligibility for waste management due to a special interest. The BJP councillors have called for a special council this week to discuss this issue.
The opposition parties allege that the civic body engaged Sunage Ecosystems for waste management even before Suchitwa Mission gave accreditation to the agency. “Multiple agencies took part in the bidding process and the ruling front was very particular in selecting this agency that lacked adequate infrastructure.
We were totally against this proposal and opposed this decision at the council when the matter came up for discussion. There was some special interest involved,” said BJP councillor Karamana Ajith.
The Suchitwa Mission gave accreditation to the agency last September. However, the opposition councillors said, the civic body engaged the agency for the work in May this year.
The Suchitwa Mission has now cancelled the empanelment given to the agency following intervention from the National Green Tribunal (NGT). UDF parliamentary party leader P Padmakumar said it was a unilateral decision from the ruling council to engage Sunage Ecosystems.
“Despite stiff objections from the opposition councillors, the ruling party went ahead with its decision. Compared to other agencies which took part in the bidding process, Sunage lacked the infrastructure for handling such a huge quantity of waste,” said Padmakumar.
A senior official of the health wing under the corporation said the agency had the approval from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board. “It was an agency accredited by the PCB and hence, we went ahead with the agreement,” he said, adding that the service provided by Clean Kerala Company Ltd was not satisfactory and hence, the decision was taken to engage a private agency. Though TNIE tried to reach health standing committee chairperson Gayathri Babu, she was unavailable to comment on the issue.