BERHAMPUR: The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) and MKCG Medical College and Hospital are caught in a tussle over payment of bills for cleaning the health institution’s premises.
While the municipal body has rapped MKCG MCH for non-payment of Rs 10.48 lakh towards the cleaning services, the latter has claimed it owes nothing to the BeMC.
The BeMC commissioner, in a letter to the MKCG MCH superintendent, sought payment amounting Rs 10.48 lakh towards waste collection from the MCH premises. It cited a tripartite agreement among BeMC, MCH and a private agency engaged by the college signed in 2021 for cleaning of the MCH premises. The agreement was valid from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. However, it has not been renewed nor a further pact signed.
As per the agreement, the BeMC claimed it provided dustbins and lifted waste to dispose at the transit dumping yard over MCH land. Towards the transportation, the letter said, the dues of Rs 10.48 lakh have not been deposited by the medical college yet.
The BeMC letter said, a total of 699 trips (417 in 2023 and 282 in 2024) were made but the payment at the rate of Rs 1,500 per trip has not been deposited yet. Besides, since the MCH closed the transit dumping yard on its land, it has become difficult to take the burden of additional transportation on part of BeMC to dump the collected garbage from the MCH at other places, it added.
The letter further stated that the BeMC council in its meeting on November 22, 2024 resolved not to lift waste from the MCH anymore.
However, the MKCG authorities had another version. Sangram Panda, registrar (administration) of the MCH refuted the charges levelled by BeMC. He said the corporation never lifted waste from the medical college premises; rather it was the private agency which did the job. As per the agreement, the private agency has been paid by the MCH for collection of the waste. Hence, there is no necessity to pay BeMC anything.
Panda said the transit waste dumping yard on MCH premises was illegal and violated Medical Council of India guidelines. “We asked to close the yard and the BeMC is reacting in different way,” he said.
The registrar said, as per the norms, it is the duty of the BeMC to collect waste from MCH premises since it collects holding tax and can charge user’s fee. “But we have never seen waste collection vehicle of BeMC on our premises during the last two years and no one approached us for user’s fee,” he added.
As per the agreement, the MCH will pay Rs 22 per one kg of soild waste to the private agency, Panda said and added that BeMC’s demand of Rs 10.48 lakh is unwarranted and a fitting reply would be sent.
Meanwhile, in the tussle between the two agencies, solid waste and construction debris lay at various places of the MCH polluting the atmosphere and creating unhygienic conditions.